Babylon 5 Reboot Coming To The CW From Original Creator
There's a throwaway joke in the video game "Control" about how reboots and remakes of certain genres of television shows are actually the sneaky manipulations of a secretive and sinister government organization, all in an attempt to make an unsuspecting public more receptive to outlandish ideas and — essentially — easier to control. It's a tongue-in-cheek jab that's not to be taken seriously by any conspiracy nuts out there who might be reading these words, of course, but somehow that's the first thing that came to mind when I saw the news that "Babylon 5" would be receiving a series reboot from its own creator. Not only that, but it'll be made for none other than The CW network. If that information doesn't make this sound like a vaguely unsettling PSYOP, nothing does! I'm onto you, Federal Bureau of Control...
Babylon ... 6?
It's a little hard to imagine that The CW's usual target demographic would overlap with the fandom of the original "Babylon 5" space opera series, but that's why I'm not paid the big bucks. According to Deadline, original "Babylon 5" series creator J. Michael Straczynski is in charge of the "from-the-ground-up reboot" for The CW that will similarly follow the character of John Sheridan, who was portrayed by Bruce Boxleitner the first time around. Running for a total of five 22-episode seasons, "Babylon 5" took place on a space station (much like another space station-set series with a numeral in the title, "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," which broadcast pretty much concurrently with "Babylon 5" during their initial runs) at a crucial historical moment in the series timeline.
Also written and executive produced by Straczynski, the report includes details that "...the reboot revolves around John Sheridan ... an Earthforce officer with a mysterious background, who is assigned to Babylon 5, a five-mile-long space station in neutral space, a port of call for travelers, smugglers, corporate explorers and alien diplomats at a time of uneasy peace and the constant threat of war. His arrival triggers a destiny beyond anything he could have imagined, as an exploratory Earth company accidentally triggers a conflict with a civilization a million years ahead of us, putting Sheridan and the rest of the B5 crew in the line of fire as the last, best hope for the survival of the human race."
Straczynski is hardly a stranger to the sci-fi scene, of course, as his impressive career includes work on "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" and "She-Ra: Princess of Power," "The Twilight Zone," "Jeremiah," Marvel's "Thor," "World War Z," and co-creating "Sense8" along with the Wachowski sisters.