Sigourney Weaver is looking back fondly, and a little wistfully, at Galaxy Quest. In a new career retrospective video for Vanity Fair, the actor opened up about the 1999 cult classic, sharing why she still hopes audiences will one day see the version the cast originally shot.
Weaver explained that DreamWorks re-edited the sci-fi spoof at the last minute, trimming several of Alan Rickman’s “strange and wonderful” scenes to ensure the film would appeal to younger viewers and compete with Stuart Little. “I wish they put out a director’s cut,” she said. “DreamWorks decided to release the movie with some of the more sophisticated scenes cut… Why don’t they put out the movie again with more of his scenes?”
She also reflected on her affection for Gwen DeMarco and for Tawny Madison, the fictional in-universe character Gwen plays. Weaver said she connected with Gwen’s frustration at being seen only for her looks in the show’s outdated sci-fi world. “I wanted to play a young woman… who wants so much to be a star and who, because she’s beautiful and bosomy and blonde, no one takes very seriously,” she said. “I felt great compassion and sisterhood with Gwen and Tawny.”
The actor added that working with her ensemble, including Tim Allen, Tony Shalhoub and Rickman, was “fortunate”, calling the experience a “great privilege” and “a love letter to actors”.
As for the long-rumoured sequel, Weaver revealed that co-writer Bob Gordon had completed a script but never handed it over to DreamWorks. “He just felt they’d missed the boat on ours,” she said. Plans for a follow-up eventually faded, especially after Rickman’s death in 2016. “We always meant to do a sequel… And then with Alan passing away, we just lost heart,” she admitted.
Directed by Dean Parisot, Galaxy Quest has endured as both a parody and an affectionate tribute to franchises like Star Trek, following a washed-up TV cast pulled into a real interstellar crisis by aliens who mistake fiction for fact.
While a film sequel remains stalled, the universe may still expand. Earlier this year, producer Mark Johnson confirmed that a Galaxy Questseries is currently being written for CBS Studios.