The news Babylon 5 fans have been waiting for for over a decade finally broke late last month when the series creator. J. Michael Straczynski confirmed on social media that the hit 1990s sci-fi epic would return to our screens.
For fans, it has been a long road. A reboot to the series was mooted by Straczynski as early as the 2000s and generated a fair amount of heat before falling by the wayside. However, the announcement of an animated production, Babylon 5: The Road Home, will bring a new lease of life to the dream-given form. Here's why we're excited.
Plot
As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, the new series' logline runs as follows:
"Travel across the galaxy with John Sheridan as he unexpectedly finds himself transported through multiple timelines and alternate realities in a quest to find his way back home. Along the way he reunites with some familiar faces, while discovering cosmic new revelations about the history, purpose, and meaning of the Universe."
None of this should be surprising to B5 fans. Like its contemporary Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Babylon 5 was unafraid to tackle not merely the dynamics of spirituality in space and the ramifications of alien races that believed in radically different faiths trying to find common ground but in wider philosophical questions about life and its discontents.
Babylon 5 also dabbled in time travel on occasion, making the "travel through time and space" theme a not entirely novel one. But Babylon 5: The Road Home would appear to put a new spin on these tropes, with Sheridan's unmooring from the present time (and reality) seemingly offering him new insights on the meaning of life.
Cast
Reunions are happy events, and Babylon 5 will surely be no different. However, unlike the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation, who remain around 30 years after the show ended to take part in a delightful swansong on Star Trek: Picard, Babylon 5's crew are not as numerous as they once were. Cast regulars Jerry Doyle, Star Trek: TNG alum Andreas Katsulas, Richard Biggs, and most recently, Mira Furlan have all sadly passed away since the show was taken off the air.
However, fans will be delighted by the news that virtually every available cast member is returning for voice work. Chief among them is Bruce Boxleitner, who played Sheridan in the original. Boxleitner has kept busy in the interim, with various spots in character roles on shows as varied as NCIS, Supergirl, and The Orville (which may yet get renewed for a fourth season). Also reappearing is Claudia Christian (Ivanova), whose profile has likewise taken a modest upward turn in the past few years, with guest appearances on NCIS and Fox's 9-1-1, as well as a starring role in Netflix's adult animated series Blood of Zeus.
One of the key characters in Babylon 5 was the Centauri ambassador Londo, whose dialog with his habitual verbal sparring partner G'Kar provided one of the series' most enduring and beloved internal dynamics. The mercurial Peter Jurasik has almost exclusively appeared in feature films in minor supporting roles in recent years but will also be returning to reprise his role as Londo.
In addition, the parts of Garibaldi, Franklin, G'Kar, Delenn, and Sinclair have all been recast, with noted video game actor Anthony Hansen, Phil LaMarr (Supergirl, The Book of Boba Fett), Andrew Morgado (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse), Rebecca Riedy (Love, Death, and Robots), and Paul Guyet (Godzilla Tales) respectively starring in those roles.
Release Date
Baton Broadcasting Company
Though fans' patience has been tried by many false starts in production and the lengthy period between franchise installments, it seems like now is the right time for an animated Babylon 5 series to see the light of day. With the Star Wars universe, in particular, pushing hard in that field of late - one thinks of 2021's The Bad Batch, last year's Tales of the Jedi, and even this year's Young Jedi Adventures - and the Star Trek franchise similarly exploring the possibilities of animated spinoffs, the climate in the television industry has never been more conducive to SF-based animated series. Of course, Babylon 5's status as a well-loved property from the 1990s also counts heavily in its favor.
A co-production of Warner Bros. Animation and Studio JMS, Babylon 5: The Road Home has been reported as having been completed, meaning it has not been affected by the ongoing strike by the Writers Guild of America that is currently disrupting TV and film production in Hollywood. A release date has yet to be confirmed, though a final pre-announcement is expected later this month. A video-on-demand release is likely.