Battlestar Galactica Show and Movie Will Take Place in a Shared Universe

The Syfy channel’s reboot of Battlestar Galactica is still one of the most revered science fiction series ever made, but the property has sat dormant for more than a decade, despite a proposed movie being in the works for almost that entire time. However, things are picking up now thanks to NBCUniversal needing brands to pull in subscribers for Peacock, and that means a new Battlestar Galactica show is on the way and the movie is finally getting made too, with Simon Kinberg writing and producing — and they will occur in the same universe.

Given that the film, which was originally said to be an adaptation of the original 1978 series, has been in the works for so long and that the show is being put together by Sam Esmail, not Kinberg, it was unclear if the two were going to be connected at all. However, Kinberg cleared that up speaking to Collider, saying that both the TV show and movie will share a universe.

“In terms of the situation with Sam and the show,” Kinberg said, “I can’t say too much about it other than there is synergy between the two enterprises and constant communication between us. We’ve become close and been having a really good time together and there will be, for lack of a better phrase and it’s an overused phrase, a shared universe.”

That could mean a lot of things with Battlestar Galactica. The rebooted TV show ended revealing that humanity is in a kind of circular loop with machines that repeats itself over and over throughout the life of the universe. The Peacock Battlestar Galactica show is reportedly already connected to the Syfy reboot in a nebulous way, (Kinberg says the movie is too.) and it could be that the film is connected to the new show in the exact same way. Maybe it’s a third retelling of the battle between man and machine. However, to have two competing timelines would be a bit complex for audiences, so maybe the two new efforts will be directly connected.

As for the status of the movie, it’s still in the early stages. The second draft of the screenplay is finished, and Kinberg is in the process of finding a director, which they hope to attach soon. The earliest they could possibly hope to shoot is at the end of the year, and that’s if everything goes exactly right.