Why James Callis Doesn’t Want to Revisit ‘Battlestar Galactica’

It’s been almost 20 years since a show with some major twists premiered—the first episode of Battlestar Galactica Season 1 aired in October 2004 in the UK and January 2005 in the U.S.—and there has even been some talk of a reboot. But would James Callis, who starred as Gaius Baltar, want to revisit the show and his character?

“No, I don’t think so,” he tells TV Insider. “We did our piece. We had the most incredible time.”

But he does look back on the show—and his castmates—very fondly. “The show was incredible. It’s still incredible. It is fascinating because of where it comes from in the sense of, ours was a reboot anyway. I watched the original show in the ’70s, and Richard Hatch was one of my heroes. So to end up in the show afterwards… In old texts, I think, they have a hand pointing and then there’s this thing N.B., nota bene, note well here, this bit’s important, and Battlestar is really a cautionary tale that we love as entertainment, but don’t realize… Oh my goodness, our version of the show was, I think, really kind of ahead of its time, especially as we delve into AI stuff that’s real, not real,” says the Slow Horses star. “The advantage that computers will have over us or might have over us and our way of clashing with each other politically, that doesn’t help. Just the whole thing is incredible.”

Callis also notes a couple similarities between his past show and current one. “They are very different shows, but Slow Horses and Battlestar are united by incredible writing, storytelling, and characters you really want to watch, you get under the skin of,” he says. “It is really interesting. We shouldn’t care so much for fictional characters in both shows, but tell me if you watch Slow Horses, if you’re not attached to River [Jack Lowden] and you want to see him do okay and just all of that.”

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Battlestar Galactica had some major twists over the years, and such is the case of Slow Horses as well. (Just this season, they wanted us to think River could be dead!) That keeps people watching. Callis agrees, adding, “If a show’s going, a show goes into its second season, something happened, but by the third season, you are doing something right By the fourth, it’s like the proof of the pudding is in the eating. If there’s not a market for it, nobody’s going to whatever, then you’re not doing it. And these Slow Horses still have several more stories to tell, which is also exciting.”

And while there may not be a revival of Battlestar Galactica in the future, the cast is reuniting in a month, Callis says. “But to be fair, we’re all in each other’s lives pretty much all of the time anyway. After 20 years, the Battlestar cast and several of the crew get together a lot. It’s an incredible, it’s another family.”

Would you want to see a Battlestar Galactica revival or reboot? Let us know in the comments section below.

Battlestar Galactica, Complete Series, Streaming Now, Prime Video