The long-gestating Battlestar Galactica reboot at Peacock is getting back on track.

Per Deadline, it has been revealed that The Sinner creator Derek Simonds has boarded the Battlestar Galactica reboot series as writer, showrunner, and executive producer. The series has been in development since 2019, originally with Michael Lesslie attached as writer and EP. It was reported in 2021 that Lesslie had exited the project, putting it on ice for a while longer. Part of the series since its inception, Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail is also still attached to the reboot as an EP alongside Simonds.

The reboot is described as a "new take on the classic IP," suggesting that it will reimagine the original series. Created by Glen A. Larson, Battlestar Galactica imagines a world where humanity has been extended to what's known as the Twelve Colonies, with humans embroiled in a war with a cybernetic species called the Cylons. The show followed a small group of survivors in a spacecraft seeking Earth after the destruction of the Twelve Colonies.

Battlestar Galactica ran for just one season, airing 24 episodes in 1978-79. It was given a low-budget spinoff series, Galactica 1980, though this show was also canceled after airing 10 episodes. In subsequent years, Battlestar Galactica would develop a large cult following. It would also be reimagined as a miniseries in 2004 developed by Ronald D. Moore. That reboot also has a prequel, Caprica, which aired for one season in 2010. It was also given a webseries, dubbed Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome, which Syfy aired as a TV movie in 2013.

The WGA Strike Further Delayed the Reboot After Original Showrunner's Exit

Esmail provided a hopeful update on the project in October 2023. He mentioned that the project was getting back underway with the Writers Guild of America strike ending, noting how pleased he was with an outline that had been turned in for the reboot. As he told Deadline, "We are working on it. In fact, I just read a great outline and it's in great shape. And because the WGA strike is over now, we're back into development again."

Teasing how the reboot will be different from Moore's version, Esmail also previously told Collider, "It's a big universe, it's a big world. I want to respect the Ronald Moore Battlestar... I think we've got the basic construction of the type of story we want to tell; the part of the mythology that we're gonna explore, because Battlestar does have a rich mythology."

No release information has yet been revealed about when the new Battlestar Galactica will premiere on Peacock.

Source: Deadline