Stargate Atlantis sinks - but will rise again as TV movies and new spin-off

STARGATE Atlantis is to end after its fifth and current season but will live on in the form of TV movies, says showrunner Joseph Mallozzi.

Confirming earlier rumours about the end of the show, Mallozzi told SFX magazine: "I was disappointed to hear we didn't get a sixth season pick-up.

"Ratings for the show's fifth season have been up over the last year and I was feeling cautiously optimistic.

"Still, I understand it was down to economics and while a sixth season would have been ideal, it's nice to know the Atlantis expedition will get to continue its adventures in movie form."

Mallozzi and co-executive producer Paul Mullie will pen the first Atlantis TV movie, which will pick up the story where the show ends. The final episode of the series airs in January 2009.

Mallozzi says the storyline of the TV series hasn't been adjusted in the light of the show's cancellation - he promised "love, loss, betrayal, revenge, secrets revealed, exhilarating victories and crushing defeats."

He spoke of a "significant character death" that would surprise many viewers.

In the meantime, a new spin-off called Stargate Universe is in the pipeline and will debut in the US early next year as a two-hour TV movie before going weekly in the summer.

It will focus on a group of explorers unable to return to Earth, who find themselves manning the Destiny, a ship with a pre-programmed mission that takes them to the edge of the known universe.