By Grabthar's Hammer: 'Galaxy Quest 2' Scrapped After Alan Rickman's Death
A few months ago, Alan Rickman passed away at the age of 69 and film fans the world over mourned the death of one of our finest actors. And today serves as another crushing reminder that we're never going to see another performance from Rickman, since it has been revealed that his death led the cancellation of a planned sequel to the 199 comedy/science fiction classic Galaxy Quest. In a new interview, original cast member Sam Rockwell revealed that Galaxy Quest 2 almost happened, but Rickman's death and other factors caused the whole thing to come undone.
Rockwell, who played walking, whining redshirt Guy Fleegman in Dean Parisot's film, recently appeared on the Nerdist podcast (via ScreenCrush) and revealed this news:
"They were going to do a [Galaxy Quest] sequel on Amazon and we were ready to sign up, and [then] Alan Rickman passed away and Tim Allen wasn't available – he has a show – and everybody's schedule was all weird. We were going to do, like, this sequel on Amazon. It was going to shoot, like, right now."
We first heard about a sequel to Galaxy Quest in early 2015, back when it was supposed to be a television show. Later that year, Amazon scooped up the project and Parisot and original co-writer Robert Gordon were set to return. And then things went silent and then Rickman passed away and now here we are. In the midst of all of this, there was also a Galaxy Quest sequel comic book that no one talked about.
The original Galaxy Quest followed a group of washed-up actors, famous only for their roles on a '70s science fiction television series, who get pulled into an actual interstellar way between two alien races. On the surface, it was a parody of Star Trek and Star Trek fandom, but in execution, it was a brilliantly executed blend of actual science fiction and character-driven comedy. The blend of legit genre elements and hilarious gags recalls Ghostbusters. It was only a minor hit 17 years ago, but it's widely regarded to be a classic now, especially by Star Trek aficionados.
Although every other member of the cast is just about perfect, it's hard to imagine anyone wanting to see a Galaxy Quest 2 without Rickman's pretentious thespian Alexander Dane. As much as I'd like to see Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Sam Rockwell, Tony Shalhoub and the rest of the cast return as these characters, Amazon probably made the right call in quietly scrapping this project. The original is just about perfect. Alan Rickman is dead. It's time to look to the future.