Peacock's Battlestar Galactica gets a showrunner in The Little Drummer Girl's Michael Lesslie
We found out back in September that Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail was behind a new Battlestar Galactica that would air on Peacock, NBCUniversal’s forthcoming streaming platform. Today, Deadline reports that it’s found a lead writer and showrunner in Michael Lesslie, who previously helmed AMC’s solid 2018 spy drama, The Little Drummer Girl, and penned the script for 2016's Assassin’s Creed film adaptation. .
Lesslie will write and executive produce the series, which isn’t a reboot of Sci-Fi and Ronald D. Moore’s spin on the 1978 series, in which the universe’s last line of humans try to survive after warring with a robot race, The Cylons. Instead, Deadline writes, Lesslie will “work up a reimagined world.” That, of course, is plenty vague, but there’s no shortage of material for him to work with. Battlestar Galactica’s had a robust life outside of its namesake shows, from spin-offs like Caprica to prequels like Blood & Chrome to books and comics.
“The word ‘reboot’ was used when we were first talking about it, and I cringed,” Esmail told The Hollywood Reporter about Battlestar Galactica last year. “Ronald Moore, he just hit it out of the park with his series, so why would I even want to touch that? I talked to him and said, ‘A, are you OK with this? And B, if you are, how do we proceed?’ He said he was OK with it as long as it wasn’t a reboot—which was in line with what I was thinking. But the world of Battlestar Galactica is so rich, the mythology is so interesting, that I think there is a lot to pick from and explore.”
Leslie echoes this idea in his statement, saying “the possibilities of Battlestar Galactica’s world are infinite and that each iteration has raised the bar for epic and intelligent sci-fi storytelling.” He continues, “The teams at Esmail Corp, UCP and Peacock are second to none, and I already know that we are going to honour Glen A Larson and Ronald D Moore’s landmark series and break new boundaries with our own vision. It’s a dream come true—one I just can’t wait to share with fans, new and old alike. So say we all.”
Battlestar Galactica won’t be ready for Peacock’s launch this summer, obviously, but you can get a look at its Punky Brewster, Saved By The Bell, and A.P. Bio revivals here.