Why Babylon 5 Will Probably Never Return To TV

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The current age of television is rife with executives hungry to bring back shows that elicit feelings of nostalgia. For that reason, it appears wise for producers and creators of old shows to stick to the old adage "never say never," when it comes to revivals. Unless they're Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski. In a recent tweet spree, Straczynski revealed to fans that a revival is not on the table, and the show never may return to television again due to alleged issues with executives at Warner Bros.:

 Won't work.  They literally told my agent "We have no plans, and no intentions, of letting anything else be done in terms of television with Babylon 5."  And a kickstarter wouldn't pay for even a fraction of a season.  That won't change for years, when those execs are dead/gone. https://twitter.com/AnthonyNagatani/status/987207038856978432 …

J. Michael Straczynski tweeted like a man frustrated and defeated as he stated quite plainly to the Babylon 5 fanbase the series has no chance at a television revival. The situation is incredibly unfortunate as Straczynski certainly has a want to bring the show back, but said that Warner Bros. won't even spend money to convert old episodes to HD or release the series on Blu-ray, let alone grant it a revival. The news got even worse, as Straczynski stated that since WB is considered a "living entity," that means it retains the rights of the show up to 50 years after its death. Essentially, if Warner Bros. ever goes under, Straczynski and a chunk of Babylon 5 fans would be long gone by the time the rights to the series reverted back to him.

All hope is not lost entirely for Babylon 5, however, as J. Michael Straczynski does still retain the rights to make a film if he should choose to do so. Straczynski teased he was working on a film on the past, but work on that appears to have halted as he mentioned the difficulty of getting a Babylon 5 film off the ground:

 Warners controls the TV and all the other rights but not the movie rights, I have those, but without access to the TV rights it's been very difficult to get anyone at another studio to want to commit anything; they want all of the rights under one roof. https://twitter.com/RabbiReport/status/987209627027767296 …

J. Michael Straczynski said that Warner Bros won't sell the rights to the franchise, so no studio will bite. According to Straczynski, the executives holding back any deals don't want Babylon 5 to go anywhere else as it would be embarrassing if the franchise succeeded and they let it go. Straczynski likened these executives to "a monkey with its fist around a nut in a jar," on his Twitter, which shows his level of frustration with the franchise being out of his hands.

Babylon 5 isn't available to watch or stream anywhere, but DVD's can be purchased of the original series. For information on some shows that will be coming to television in 2018, visit our midseason premiere guide and summer premiere guide.