The idea blended Egyptian culture and ancient alien concepts with interplanetary adventure. Studios didn’t get it. The producer didn’t like the pacing. The first test screening didn’t go well. But when the film reached theatres, it was a hit, spawning a franchise that would go on for years and consist of multiple novels and TV shows. Now, we’re going back to the beginning to find out What Happened to Stargate.

Filmmaker Roland Emmerich was fascinated with Egyptian culture and architecture. While in film school, he had an idea for a story about the discovery of a space ship, buried under the Great Pyramid. The revelation that ancient Egyptians were influenced by alien visitors. The story was too big and expensive to bring to the screen at that time, so Emmerich set it aside. When he was working on his fourth feature film, the sci-fi thriller Moon 44,...