What Order Should I Watch the Stargate Franchise In?

If you’ve been around the sci-fi fandom for a while, it’s more than likely you’ve heard of Stargate. Whether you’re familiar with the original 1994 Roland Emmerich film or perhaps the impressive 10-season television series Stargate SG-1, there’s something for everyone in this exciting exploratory franchise. But if you’ve heard of Stargate, then you likely also know that the timeline can be confusing. With three television shows, multiple movies, and a prequel miniseries, one might be lost on where exactly to start. Thankfully, we have the answers. So set your coordinates and get ready to walk through the gate because this is going to be a bumpy ride.

Stargate SG-1

Release Date

July 27, 1997

Cast

Richard Dean Anderson , Michael Shanks , amanda tapping , Christopher Judge , Don S. Davis , Gary Jones , Teryl Rothery , Ben Browder

Seasons

10

The Original ‘Stargate’ Film Kicks off the Franchise

In 1994, Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin co-wrote and released Stargate. This high-concept sci-fi adventure starred Kurt Russell as Col. Jack O’Neil and James Spader as Dr. Daniel Jackson. Together, along with their small team, O’Neil and Jackson travel through the titular portal discovered in Giza over 60 years earlier. The stargate was later co-opted by the U.S. military and hidden within the underground Colorado mountain complex, only to be activated by Jackson. On the other side of the stargate’s wormhole is the desert world of Abydos, where the alien god Ra (Jaye Davidson) rules over an enslaved class of humans whose ancestors were stolen from Ancient Egypt. Eventually, O’Neil and Jackson stop Ra from his ultimate plans to take over Earth, but that’s where things get messy.

The original Stargate is a great time and a fun standalone adventure that sets the stage well for the rest of the franchise. Here, Jack O’Neil and Daniel Jackson are established as key figures in the military science-fiction series, and the film ultimately concludes with the former regaining his purpose in life. Jackson, on the other hand, remains on Abydos with his new bride, Sha’uri (Mili Avital), deciding to explore the cosmos. Of course, Jackson and O’Neil would be reunited a few years later, but neither would be the same. Though Stargate was originally meant to kick off a trilogy of films, the original classic never quite got as far off the ground as Emmerich and Devlin hoped. Instead, Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner were hired by MGM to develop a television continuation, which eventually became Stargate SG-1.

‘Stargate SG-1’ Reinvents the Entire ‘Stargate’ Concept

If you went from watching Stargate to immediately jumping into SG-1, you probably noted a few discrepancies between them. For starters, former MacGyver star Richard Dean Anderson and Michael Shanks replaced Kurt Russell and James Spader, who would never return to the franchise. Additionally, Anderson’s version of Russell’s character is a bit different, particularly the way his name is spelled. Russell’s was spelled Jack O’Neil, while Anderon’s was changed to Jack O’Neill. And that wasn’t the only change. The location of the stargate (as well as its appearance), the names of certain minor characters, and other small details could be considered continuity errors, but it’s best not to think about them. In effect, Stargate SG-1 follows the basic events of Stargate even if certain elements don’t exactly align.

SG-1 can be split into three distinct arcs, the first of which is kicked off with the pilot episode “Children of the Gods” (though we’d recommend the extended feature version, Stargate: Children of the Gods – The Final Cut). In SG-1, O’Neill is brought out of his retirement when the alien race, known as the Goa’uld (the same race Ra once belonged to), arrives on Abydos to fill the void left by the Egyptian Sun god. Reunited with Jackson, O’Neill is conscripted into Stargate Command, which has launched nine teams to battle interstellar threats around the globe. O’Neill, Jackson, Captain/Dr. Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping) and newcomer Teal’c (Christopher Judge) become SG-1, and the adventure kicks off.

Though the Goa’uld Arc makes up the first four seasons of SG-1, the alien tyrants are constant thorns in our hero’s sides throughout the series. Though beginning with Season 5, the Anubis Arc begins. Anubis (played by David Palffy) was the main antagonist for the next few seasons and recurred on SG-1 until the eighth season. Of course, this is when things get a bit tricky. In SG-1‘s seventh season finale, “The Lost City,” the concept of Atlantis is brought front and center as Stargate Command prepares to expand its reach. Following the two-part Season 8 premiere, “New Order,” fans will not have to divide their attention between SG-1 and its sister series,Stargate Atlantis.

‘Stargate Atlantis’ Begins a Parallel Narrative as ‘SG-1’ Continues

In the two-part Stargate Atlantis premiere, “Rising,” Daniel Jackson discovers the hidden location of Atlantis, sending Major John Sheppard (Joe Flanigan) and his Stargate Command team into the Pegasus Galaxy, where they capture the Lost City as their own. For the next three seasons, Sheppard, Dr. Elizabeth Weir (Torri Higginson), Athosians leader Teyla Emmagan (Rachel Luttrell), and the rest of the crew battle the villainous Wraith and discover the hidden secrets of the Ancients. Ironically, future Aquaman star Jason Mamoa even joins the show in its second season. While there is some clear crossover between SG-1 and Atlantis (Amanda Tapping’s Samantha Carter is a consistent character on both shows), the spin-off was largely its own thing. Still, the Atlantis Expedition is an exciting adventure that expands the Stargate universe further than before.

Running concurrently with the first three seasons of Stargate Atlantis are the final three seasons of Stargate SG-1. SG-1 Season 8 takes place at the same time as SGA Season 1, just as Season 9 of SG-1 and Season 2 of SGA overlap. Naturally, things round out with SG-1 Season 10 (the final season of the original series) and Atlantis Season 3, though the latter series continues. After the end of SG-1, Amanda Tapping moved over to Stargate Atlantis for the show’s fourth season, where she reprised her role as Samantha Carter on the Atlantis Expedition. SG-1 concluded after a decade with its final arc (the Ori Arc), ending the show at 214 episodes, while Atlantis continued for two more seasons before ending at episode 100, “Enemy at the Gate.” Though an Atlantis continuation film, Stargate: Extinction, was in the works, the project was shelved indefinitely in 2011.

‘Stargate SG-1’ Concludes With Two Made-for-TV Movies

Just because Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis were over didn’t mean that the rest of the franchise was finished. Following the SG-1 series finale, “Unending,” Stargate franchise executive producer Robert C. Cooper helmed the continuation film, Stargate: The Ark of Truth. This direct-to-video feature continued right where SG-1 left off (though it took place before the Season 3 finale of Stargate Atlantis). In this film, Lt. Col. Cameron Mitchell (Ben Browder) — who had replaced Richard Dean Anderson’s Jack O’Neill as SG-1’s commanding officer following Season 8 — and the rest of the SG-1 team take the final fight to the Ori. The Ark of Truth officially wraps up any loose ends from the original series and concludes the saga. But even this isn’t the end for our favorite SG-1 heroes.

Though The Ark of Truth was released in March 2008, only a few months later, Stargate fans were elated that Stargate: Continuum would continue the SG-1 story to its final end. Here, Jack O’Neill reunites with his SG-1 allies and calls back to the original Goa’uld Arc from the start of the series. As Ba’al (Cliff Simon) rewrites history to ensure that Stargate Command never exists, the SG-1 team is thrown into a world where they never banded together in the first place. Nevertheless, they’re forced to confront the harsh realities of the future Ba’al has planned for Earth and make a final stand against the Goa’uld invaders. Continuum is set just after the Stargate Atlantis Season 5 premiere, “Search and Rescue.” Though another proposed SG-1 continuation (this one centering on Jack O’Neill) titled Stargate: Revolution was considered, it too was ultimately shelved.

‘Stargate Universe’ Rounds out the Timeline, Which Officially Ends With ‘Stargate Origins’

Part of the reason we never got to see more from Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis was because of the third Stargate series, Stargate Universe. Unlike the previous two installments in the television franchise, Universe ran only two seasons (and 40 episodes) and felt the most like a departure from the original narrative. Though characters like Richard Dean Anderson’s Jack O’Neill showed up in a guest capacity, the crew of the Destiny (the Ancient ship traveling through space) are the clear and main focus of this spin-off. In addition to the series itself, there are 40 webisodes under the Stargate Universe Kino banner, though they’re not essential viewing. Unfortunately, Stargate Universe ends on something of a cliffhanger, though we won’t spoil it here. The series finale, “Gauntlet,” wasn’t meant to be the end of the saga, but a steep decline in ratings sealed its fate. Years later, a comic book continuation would attempt to conclude the saga with the “Back to Destiny” arc, though it only ran for a few issues. Still, that’s better than most canceled shows get.

But even this wasn’t the last Stargate project produced by MGM before its eventual sale to Amazon… In 2018, Stargate Origins told the story of a young Catherine Langford (Ellie Gall), the daughter of the professor who originally found the stargate in the Egyptian desert. Catherine had been played by a variety of actresses throughout Stargate history, but here we see a young version of the character in the 1930s Giza as she battles Nazi explorers and Goa’uld invaders alike. Technically, Origins — which was first released as a miniseries and later collected into a feature titled Stargate Origins: Catherine — could be watched before the original 1994 film, but we’d recommend you save this for the very end. While it’s a nice companion piece to the whole franchise, it’s not essential to the main plot. Of course, for all you completionists out there, any Stargate is essential Stargate.

The entire Stargate franchise is available to stream on Pluto TV in the U.S.

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