J. Michael Straczynski's Babylon 5 was one of the most beloved science fiction TV shows of the 1990s. The revolutionary series laid the foundation for the narratives of much of today's prestige storytelling, moving away from an episodic format to be a true televised novel. It's stuck around in the hearts of fans ever since, with many of them demanding a revival that continues the story. But JMS has been taking things in a different direction.
Babylon 5 is potentially making a comeback on The CW -- not where most fans would've anticipated the show to land based on the network's current lineup of programming -- and it'll be a reboot rather than a revival. JMS' involvement does offer hope about the actual quality, but the show could still be transformed in any number of ways, some of them intriguing and others that might get B5 fans worked up for all the wrong reasons.
The New Babylon 5 Could Be a Battlestar Galactica-esque Hard Reboot
One idea that JMS put forth was doing with the Babylon 5 story and characters what was done in the 2000s Battlestar Galactica reboot. The SyFy show took the bare essence of the concepts from the classic Battlestar Galactica and completely reconfigured the rest, turning the space opera into a post-9/11 look at terrorism and extremism. Cylons, Adama and other elements were still there, but even these were filtered through an entirely new lens.
This way, there's a brand new direction for the franchise that still entices old-school fans with familiar themes and characters. Since this sort of approach is more common nowadays, fans might also be more accepting of such a reboot. Even if it's fairly close to the original version of Babylon 5, by utilizing modern special effects and storytelling techniques, the new show would still feel like a "gritty modern" reboot, whether it intended to or not. However, this would likely require a bit of a budget in the modern television era, so the series would likely have a better shot on a streaming platform (similar to how Paramount+ is going all-out with Halo) than The CW, which is at risk of being sold.
The CW's Babylon 5 Will Be Babylon 5 In Name Only
The more likely scenario, however, is that the Babylon 5 reboot will bear very little-- if any -- resemblance to the original. The CW, for better or worse, definitely has a brand aesthetic and demographic, with many of its shows being made to appeal to young adults. Many of its shows are essentially soap operas with some sort of genre flavoring. In the case of the Arrowverse (which may not survive whenever Grant Gustin leaves), the genre has been superheroes, though it's an angle that even the shows themselves tend to forget. Thus, Babylon 5 may end up just being The 100, starring young pretty people with the same character names as JMS' classic heroes and villains.
The CW has also remade previous hits from other television eras, and the results are mixed to say the least. These shows include their versions of The 4400, Roswell, Kung-Fu and Walker, with most of them having little to do with the previous series beyond cashing in on the name brand. To be fair, these shows' original incarnations didn't have the same fan base, let alone storytelling depth and acclaim of Babylon 5. And since JMS is involved, any sort of edicts or other network branding that the CW tries to enforce will still have to line up with the franchise creator's vision. But the network will likely want a different Babylon 5 than the fans have been asking for -- for better or for worse.