Sam Esmail’s Battlestar Galactica Reboot Won’t Be Coming to Peacock After All

Somewhere, the faint sound of an especially melancholy take on “All Along the Watchtower” is playing, because Battlestar Galactica fans aren’t getting a balm for that polarizing 2009 finale of the show’s most recent iteration anytime soon. A new report says that the long-planned reboot at Peacock—from Mr. Robot‘s Sam Esmail—is no longer moving forward at the streamer.

Variety broke the news, and reminds us that the new Battlestar “was never formally ordered to series and has been in development [since it was announced in 2019]. Exact story details never emerged, but the show was said to be set in the same continuity as the 2003 Battlestar Galactica series.” In 2020, Michael Lesslie came aboard as showrunner, but earlier in 2024 we learned that Derek Simonds (The Sinner) had instead been tapped for the role, and was also to have served as writer and executive producer.

At the time, we took the news that Simonds had joined Esmail’s project as an excellent sign that it was really, truly happening. Now it seems that’s not the case—at least not at Peacock; Variety writes that “according to an individual with knowledge of the situation, [studio] UCP will shop the project to other outlets.”

Here’s hoping Battlestar finds a new home soon—maybe at a streamer more known for specializing in sci-fi?

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