Released in 1994, "Stargate" became an instant sci-fi hit for audiences craving big action sequences, fantastical worlds and James Spader. The movie, apart from helping to launch the careers of director Roland Emmerich and his writer/producer partner Dean Devlin, spawned a number of sequels, novelizations, comic books and even an animated series, all generating a sizable cult following.

It's been a while since we last visited the "Stargate" worlds, and while there have been rumblings of a new movie trilogy, Devlin has some bad news for fans: It isn't happening, at least in the near future.

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"It looked good for a couple of months, but now it’s not looking so good,” Devlin confided to Empire. "There are just a lot of things that have to fire at the same time, and there was a moment where I thought it was all firing at the same time, and then it all kind of fell apart."

He placed most of the blame on the current Hollywood franchise model, which emphasizes financial success over original ideas and storylines. "You’d have several studios involved and a lot of voices and, you know, you may make something great, but you also may have something that doesn't resemble what you wanted to do," Devlin said. "That kind of ‘collaboration’ is a terrifying aspect of the whole thing."

That's not to say a new "Stargate" is out of the realm of possibility, but Devlin and company want to make sure it's the best possible situation and story.

"Listen, I think if we did "Stargate" right, the fans would like it and we could do something really good," he said. "But if we screw it up, they’ll reject it. As they should. But I kind of don’t want to do it if I think that we’ll screw it up, and that’s one of the things that’s holding us back."

So there you have it. The Stargates are closed for the time being, but maybe, just maybe, we'll one day get to revisit them. And James Spader. That'd be cool, too.