Stargate SG-1 executive producer Paul Mullie told SCI FI Wire that the SCI FI Channel's upcoming spinoff series, Stargate Atlantis, will introduce viewers to a new galaxy. "The franchise is Stargate, right? So it's still people who go through a gate to other worlds," Mullie said in an interview. "The difference with Atlantis is that it's in another galaxy, with a new set of villains, a new set of heroes, a new set of adventures. The hero crop is still the same."

Mullie's fellow SG-1 excecutive producer Joseph Malozzi said in a separate interview that he and Mullie will also be involved in the new series, which will be executive produced by SG-1 creators Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper. "We are consulting producers and writers on the new spinoff," Malozzi said. "Actually, at this point we've written a couple of episodes." Mullie added that he and Malozzi were helping get Atlantis to a point where it can compare with SG-1. "We're in the writing room, and we're helping develop stories, that sort of thing," Mullie said.

Malozzi said that the increased popularity of SG-1 over the years doesn't put pressure on the new series. "I don't think it puts any pressure at all, actually," he said. "The truth is the show kind of labored in obscurity for a while there for the first few years, and it was on Showtime and didn't draw a lot of people. I remember when we first went on the show, I would tell people I worked on Stargate, and they'd be like, 'That's that show with that guy from that other show.' Now I tell people I work on Stargate, and they go, 'I love that show.' And it's great. I really appreciate it. The switch to SCI FI Channel has helped us a lot to get to a wider audience, and I just think it's great." Stargate Atlantis premieres July 16.

Just to expand a little farther;

Atlantis throws our new gang of heroes into the Pegasus galaxy by opening up a new 8-cheveron combination dial on the stargate. This new 8-chev thing then opens up a whole new network of gates that were thusfar inaccessible to the SGC.

I'm really looking forward to Atlantis now, with the launch only a couple of months away the excitement's beginning to build. Let's just hope it's more of a CSI Miami rather than a Lone Gunmen..... ;)

Despite a lot of negativity thrown out over it, I'm looking forward to Atlantis too - although I just hope the Atlantis team work as well as SG-1 have! :)