Tim Allen Talks 'Galaxy Quest 2'
In 1999, Tim Allen starred in one of the most beloved, hysterically crazy science fiction adventure movies: Galaxy Quest. Ever since then, fans have been begging for a sequel story.
Galaxy Quest is about a band of misfits who have been starring in a Star Trek-like TV show. In the movie, they reunite for a convention where they are mistaken for their show’s characters by a real group of aliens who kidnap them because they need their help.
Fans may well be in luck. Tim Allen recently talked to Entertainment Weekly about the script that they have written for a second Galaxy Quest movie. He explained why it has taken so long to develop and what their plan is to finally bring a second story to screen.
The project had been gaining momentum toward being produced when the project’s co-star Alan Rickman died in 2016. Alan Rickman played Alexander Dane (a.k.a Lazarus in the TV show). Lazarus is the Spock-like character. Alexander Dane is a Shakespearean-trained actor who believes that he is too good for the TV show and wishes that he could stop being famous for it and for his famous line: “By Grabthar's hammer, by the Sons of Warvan, you shall be avenged!”
Tim Allen plays hammy actor Jason Nesmith (a.k.a Commander Peter Quincy Taggart). Taggart is the Captain Kirk-like character on the show. Jason is obsessed with his role as the Commander and sometimes seems to really believe he is him, which is partly why the aliens believe Jason to actually be the Commander.
“It's a fabulous script, but it had a hiccup because the wonderful Alan Rickman passed. So it all got very sad and dark because [the script] was all about [Lazrus] and Taggart. It was all about their story. It doesn't mean they can't reboot the idea, and the underlying story was hysterical and fun."
Tim Allen revealed that this has been a slow work in progress, but is still something that could happen even with Alan Rickman’s passing.
"I haven't reached out to anybody in the last week, but we talk about it all the time, There is constantly a little flicker of a butane torch that we could reboot it with. Without giving too much away, a member of Alan's Galaxy Quest family could step in and the idea would still work."
One of the story aspects in the draft script is light-speed space travel time dilation. That could play a role in the story with the NSEA Protector crew being out-of-sync with the rest of the planet.
"[The sequel] could happen now or in five years and it doesn't matter at all because when you travel at light speed, when you come back it can be like only 20 minutes, but 20 years have passed, right? That part is wonderful for the sci-fi freak in me. But right now it's in a holding pattern."
We hope for our sakes that the sequel happens sooner rather than later.
Galaxy Quest director Dean Parisot has also been in talks with the sequel idea and he said that it keeps being brought up. At one point Amazon Studios had started to develop a series spin-off, but it was shelved and never produced.
One of the reasons why doing a sequel would be a challenge is that Alan Rickman would not be a part. His performance as the bitter actor who felt trapped by the corny TV show’s success was almost every fan’s favorite. While the role was clearly based off of Mr. Spock in Star Trek, Dean Parisot said that Rickman was able to use his own experiences as part of the character arc.
“He felt he had been typecast in Die Hard and was this Shakespearean trained actor who was only known for that, so he was playing out something that happened to him in real life."
The good news is that Galaxy Quest reportedly had several deleted scenes, as with any film, including ones with Alan Rickman, that Dreamworks had felt were too risqué or not right and were cut out of the final film against Dean Parisot’s wishes. Perhaps some of this footage could be used in the sequel, or, if the sequel doesn’t happen, perhaps they can release the original cut of the film, complete with more Alan Rickman as Dr. Lazarus.
In an interview in 2019 with The Hollywood Reporter, Sigourney Weaver had her own take on the cut scenes and what she wants done with them. Sigourney Weaver played Gwen DeMarco, the signature female (who is a computer) on the science fiction show.
"I would buy Galaxy Quest with the cut scenes added back just to see Alan doing some of those scenes. This was a very sophisticated picture, and they could have had a wider audience with the more adult-take on the Star Trek of it."
While Tim Allen didn’t give much more information on whether or not we would see a Galaxy Quest 2 soon, there is still hope. There is a script out there, and Allen did not sound like he was giving up on showing the story to the world.
Source(s): Entertainment Weekly