According to J. Machael Straczynski, Babylon 5 is set for three DVD film outings featuring well known characters, epic tales, and better effects. All this and JMS is behind it all. Could Babylon 5 fans ask for any more?

Babylon 5 captured me from the opening episode, instead of doing an episodical story arc they dared to have a multi-series arc, and a clever one at that. Gone was the silliness of space creatures and their agendas, and in was a huge space epic which concentrated on greed, religion, and so many other traits thought only to be human. The stories were very personal and he created a group of flawed characters who all appealed to the audience in different ways. G'Kar and Garibaldi are the best characters by the way.

Anyway. News today from AICN shows us that JMS himself announced the projects.

I wrote three scripts, featuring Sheridan, Lochley, Galen and Garibaldi. (I wanted to focus on the human characters initially so we'd have more time for prosthetics R&D for the next one.) The stories, as noted previously, were huge...all over the map, from Minbar, to Earth, Mars, the future, the distant past, as well as B5 itself obviously. We're also going to be trying some new production technologies, again trying to stay ahead of the tech curve, the way B5 has always stayed ahead on these things.

The not so hot news is that during the start of production they realised that the three movies were too much to take on so early, so they've postponed one, and the most effects heavy one, for the next release. Unfortunately that's Garibaldi's tale...you better come back to make that one!

So JMS is going to direct the films as well have some of the original cast back! Not only that but he gives us the low down on the effects. Sure they are going to be lesser in the earlier films, this is to test the water for Warner so that they can see the sales and JMS can hold off the effect heavy films for the larger budgets that Warner will pass on. He also points out that despite them staying with the same designs, they are boosting the effects to modern day, after all these were made thirteen years ago!

The official announcement also arrived from Warner...

...two new Babylon 5 stories collectively entitled “Voices of the Dark” in one film plus exclusive behind the scenes content. The stories will be written and directed by executive producer and original “Babylon 5” creator J. Michael Straczynski. Executive producer Doug Netter also returns in that role. Actors from the original series that have signed on to participate in the project include Bruce Boxleitner (“President John Sheridan”), Tracy Scoggins (“Captain Elizabeth Lochley”) and Peter Woodward (“Galen”).

Oh I am excited. Although we'll have to hope JMS can direct as well as he can create his universe, I think we're going to see some excellent Babylon 5 stories appear...are you as excited? If not, go out and rent the series now!