A new ‘Galaxy Quest’ TV show is in the works

A TV series version of Galaxy Quest is reportedly being developed by nü-Star Trek’s Simon Pegg Succession writer Georgia Pritchett. The news, as reported by the British Comedy Guide, was let slip in a Times interview Pritchett was giving to promote her new series. Pritchett, who has written for Veep The Thick Of It, is the creator of Apple TV’s The Shrink Next Door starring Will Ferrell Paul Rudd.

Galaxy Quest was a moderately successful 1999 film that became a cult comedy (popular enough for its own retrospective documentary) long after it left cinemas. The film puts a sci-fi twist on the Three Amigos plot, with a group of aliens believing that the TV series they’ve accidentally started watching was real. They pick up the cast, while at a sci-fi convention, whisk them into a real-life battle beyond the stars.

The film loved to poke at both the tropes of the series as well as Star Trek’s behind-the-scenes legends, with an unlovable, egomaniacal actor in the lead role. Most memorable was the late Alan Rickman’s turn as a Nimoy-esque actor who struggled with the profile his biggest role afforded him. Sigorney Weaver, meanwhile, subverted her reputation as sci-fi’s biggest badass to play the ditzy Gwen DeMarco.

This is not the first time a Galaxy Quest adaptation has been in the works, with Amazon originally setting up plans back in 2015. Unfortunately, the death of Alan Rickman scuppered the original idea, then in 2017, Paul Sheer was tapped to write a version of the series, but little more was heard about since. 

Pritchett’s revelation was light on any detail certainly it’s not clear how much desire there is for a Galaxy Quest TV series. Certainly, both Pritchett Pegg have written a number of film TV series, with Pegg co-writing the most recent Trek movie, Beyond. The one thing we’d love to know is if the show would exist as a recovered version of the classic series, or take the crew (of actors) on yet another mission into space that they were totally unprepared for.