‘Babylon 5’ Returns As Animated Movie From WB
Emmy-winning space opera ‘Babylon 5’ is about to return as original creator J. Michael Straczynski reveals an animated movie has been made by Warner Bros. Animation & WB Home Entertainment.
For those of you unfamiliar with ‘Babylon 5’, the original series, created by Straczynski, launched in 1993 with the feature-length pilot, ‘Babylon 5: The Gathering’. The drama focused on long arcs depicting personal and political drama on board a five-mile-long space station at a time of looming war between the Centauri and the Narn.
We don’t know exactly what this animated movie will entail, however, Straczynski has written the film himself, and calls it “classic Babylon 5: raucous, heartfelt, nonstop, a ton of fun through time and space & a love letter to the fans.” He goes on to say that it is a “brand new original animated movie is already finished and in the can. So it’s 100% real, happening, and coming out very soon.”
Back in 2021, news dropped that Straczynski was working on a “from-the-ground-up” reboot of the show, revolving around John Sheridan (played by Bruce Boxleitner in the original series), 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 travellers, 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 Babylon 5 crew in the line of fire as the last, best hope for the survival of the human race.
Whether this animated film is what that “reboot” plan morphed into, or something else entirely remains to be seen. However, we don’t have too long to wait to find out more, as Straczynski confirmed that full release details and other info will come next week from WB… He just couldn’t contain his excitement about the news.
“I’m ridiculously excited about the Babylon 5 Animated Movie because it feels the most B5-ish of anything we’ve done since the original show,” the creator continued. “Warners was terrific in giving me the freedom to write the story I wanted, and the animation is phenomenal. It’s fun, deep, emotional, classic B5.”
Straczynski also adds that if this does well, there will be more animated movies, maybe on a regular basis. Hence the reason he wants to get people hyped up for it asap!
J Michael Straczynski was the visionary creator of the original series, writing 92 of the 100 eps of the original show. That control and ambition allowed the large cast and crew the time to develop a soaring, intricately detailed and ground-breaking show. It is regarded as the first TV series to introduce viewers to the concept of a five-year arc, with a defined beginning, middle and end. Straczynski picked up a sack full of awards for the series over its five-season run, including two Hugo Awards, the Saturn Award, the Space Frontier Foundation Award, and the Ray Bradbury Award. The show itself also earned five Emmy nominations and two wins (for makeup and special visual effects). More recently, Straczynski wrote, developed and served as showrunner (with the Wachowskis) on the much-beloved Netflix drama ‘Sense8’.
As to where this will land over here, we have no idea, but at least it is confirmed and has actually been made, which is brilliant news for fans. We’ll let you know when WB drop more news about the project next week.
