The Surprising Way The Stargate Universe Cast Found Out The Show Was Canceled

In the realm of sci-fi franchises, "Stargate" may not get the recognition it deserves. After starting life as a blockbuster movie, it shifted over to the small screen beginning with the wildly successful "Stargate SG-1." That gave rise to an entire universe filled with spin-offs, with hundreds of episodes of TV being produced over a 13 year span. But all good things eventually end, and the end of this franchise came when "Stargate Universe" was canceled by Syfy after two seasons. Unfortunately, the cast had to find out about it along with everyone else.

Deadline announced the show's cancellation in December 2010, with that news quickly making the rounds on Twitter. As reported by the fansite GateWorld at the time, David Blue, who played Eli Wallace, learned from the social networking site that his show wasn't coming back for a third season. "Crap. Just heard the news as well. Apparently, nobody decided to tell us ahead of time," he posted on Twitter at the time. "My rep heard it online. Seems they canceled SGU." Ming-Na Wen, who played Camille Wray, had a similar experience, tweeting the following:

"To find out SGU is canceled first from my tweeps is the power of Twitter. I'll miss my SGU family very much! Thank you for your love and support!"

"Stargate Universe" is significant because it was the last show keeping the franchise alive. "SGU" follows a band of soldiers, scientists, and civilians who are forced through a Stargate when their hidden base is attacked. The desperate survivors emerge aboard an ancient ship, which is on an unknown course. Unable to return to Earth, the group must try to unlock the secrets of the ship's Stargate in order to survive.

Other actors and members of the crew shared their thoughts on the show's cancellation on Twitter at the time. Many of them were, understandably, sad to see the show go. More than just the usual sadness, though, there was some tension behind the scenes. Series co-creator Brad Wright, via TV by the Numbers, expressed his frustrations in November 2010:

"I don't think if we for any reason go away, it is an issue necessarily of the quality of the product that we've been making. I think getting moved on the schedule has hurt us. And the fact that some of the fans that liked SG-1 and Atlantis were so angry that they have deliberately hurt us, which is unfortunate."

Indeed, "Stargate Universe" was shifted around the schedule quite a bit by Syfy. The network was prone to frustrating decisions within this franchise: "Stargate SG-1" was nearly canceled after season 8 so they could greenlight another spin-off, namely "Stargate Command." That didn't happen, but it's easy to see the creators being frustrated with the decision-making. However, in an open letter from Syfy to fans shared by GateWorld in May 2011, the network claimed the cancellation was purely a business decision:

"We started the show on Fridays where we've had the most success and where it initially did well, and we left it there until it started struggling. When it was clear the show had fallen to unsustainable levels and would not survive on Fridays, only then did we move it to the night where our highest rated show of all time had recently aired."

The ratings were simply unsustainable, and that was that. It was over for this beloved franchise. There was a canceled "Stargate" movie that would have brought all of the shows together, but that never came to pass. Save for the webseries "Stargate Origins," this was the end of the road — and a lot of the people involved had to learn about it from Twitter.

You can grab "Stargate Universe: The Complete Series" on Blu-ray or DVD from Amazon.