Babylon 5 is coming back as an animated movie, series creator J. Michael Straczynski revealed last week, and today The Hollywood Reporter has the exclusive on what it’s about: Sheridan traveling through the multiverse in search of a way home.
The Babylon 5 animated movie is B5: The Road Home, and here’s what it’s about
Twenty-five years after the influential sci-fi show went off the air, an animated movie will bring back six members of the original cast.
Twenty-five years after the influential sci-fi show went off the air, an animated movie will bring back six members of the original cast.
Image: Warner Bros. Animation
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The basic synopsis, via THR:
“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.”
As Straczynski hinted, many of the original surviving cast members are returning, including Bruce Boxleitner (Sheridan), Claudia Christian (Ivanova), Peter Jurasik (Londo), Bill Mumy (Lennier), Tracy Scoggins (Lochley), and Patricia Tallman (telepath Lyta Alexander).
What’s a little surprising is that many of the cast members who tragically died over the years also have returning characters, with Delenn, G’Kar, security chief Garibaldi, Dr. Franklin, original Babylon 5 commander Jeffrey Sinclair, and the omnipresent Zathras all voiced by new actors.
Then again, it’s a multiverse play: they could well be very different versions of themselves. If you’ve ever watched Straczynski’s excellent Netflix series Sense8 (co-created with the Wachowskis), you can easily imagine how he could nail such a story with shifting, intertwined personalities.
It’s not clear when during the B5 timeline the story is set or whether that necessarily matters — without spoiling the original show, fans might say it wraps up Sheridan’s story fairly well while leaving an opportunity for more.
Straczynski has said on Twitter that the new film “feels the most B5-ish of anything we’ve done since the original show” and suggested it’ll debut at San Diego Comic-Con 2023, which begins July 20th.
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