'Galaxy Quest' Sequel for Amazon Almost Happened, Sam Rockwell Says
Sam Rockwell in ‘Galaxy Quest’
Galaxy Quest, the beloved send-up/celebration of Star Trek and its fans, was a modest box office hit when it was released in 1999 but has since developed a cult of fans big enough to fuel Amazon’s interest in a sequel–one that, according to co-star Sam Rockwell, would have been shooting right now if not for scheduling conflicts and the untimely passing of Alan Rickman.
Related: Remembering Alan Rickman: His Most Memorable Roles
“We were ready to sign up for it,” Rockwell tells Chris Hardwick on this week’s Nerdist podcast. (The portion of the conversation that focuses on Galaxy Quest begins at the 12-minute mark.) “You know, Alan Rickman passed away,” Rockwell continues. “And then Tim Allen wasn’t available. He has a show. Everybody’s schedule was all weird. We were going to do this sequel on Amazon. It was going to shoot, like, right now.”
Now it sounds like it won’t happen, mainly because Rickman’s character was so crucial to the original film and, presumably, would have been to the sequel as well. “How do you fill that void of Alan Rickman?” asks Rockwell, memorable in the original film as clueless bit player Guy Fleegman. Good question.
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Rockwell does not confirm that the sequel idea is officially scrapped nor does he go into any details about what its plot may have been. He does, however, confess that he initially didn’t want to do Galaxy Quest because at the time, he was trying to be a more “serious” actor. (Fun fact: He also mentions in passing that Paul Rudd read for the movie, too.)
Fortunately, as the guy who would be known as Guy says: “Somebody knocked sense into me.” As a result, even if there never is a Galaxy Quest 2, we’ll always have moments like these:
