Watch the first trailer for Babylon 5: The Road Home

Watch the first trailer for Babylon 5: The Road Home

Babylon 5 — the mid-’90s sci-fi series that told a compelling five-year story with evolving characters at a time when most shows reset the agenda after every single episode — is coming back as an animated movie starring several members of the original cast.

Perhaps you’ve already heard? But you haven’t gotten more than a peek at what that might mean, and now the first full trailer has just dropped:

It features Sheridan getting “whipsawed through multiple timelines and alternate realities,” including one where Babylon 5 lost the Shadow War. It also includes Zathras, which makes sense given that plot (you could call that character a bit of a temporal engineer) and will absolutely make diehard B5 fans smile.

Many of the original surviving cast members are returning: Bruce Boxleitner (Sheridan), Claudia Christian (Ivanova), Peter Jurasik (Londo), Bill Mumy (Lennier), Tracy Scoggins (Lochley), and Patricia Tallman (telepath Lyta Alexander). New voice actors will play Delenn, G’Kar, security chief Garibaldi, Dr. Franklin, Zathras, and original Babylon 5 commander Jeffrey Sinclair, as their original cast members died since the ’90s show originally aired.

Zathras returns.
Zathras returns.

According to listings for the film at Amazon and Vudu, where it’s up for preorder for $20, it looks like it’ll be out on August 14th or 15th, though series creator JMS has also previously said it’ll premiere at Comic-Con in July. It’s also coming to Apple TV and YouTube. It’ll be available to stream in 4K, and both 4K and 1080p Blu-rays will be available: Amazon UK already has listings for discs. The movie will run for 1 hour and 20 minutes, according to Apple’s listing.

Separate from the animated movie, Babylon 5 is also getting rebooted as another live-action TV series, but that project is currently in limbo due to the Writers Guild strike, among other reasons.

Disclosure: The Verge’s editorial staff is also unionized with the Writers Guild of America, East.

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