Synopsis

With the Ancients' city of Atlantis discovered in the Pegasus Galaxy by Stargate Command, Dr. Elizabeth Weir and Major Sheppard lead a scientific expedition to the ancient abandoned city. Once there, the team not only find themselves unable to contact Earth, but their explorations unexpectedly reawaken the Ancients' deadly enemies, The Wraith, who hunger for this new prey. Now with the help of… newfound local allies like Teyla Emmagan, the Atlantis Team sets about to uncover their new home's secrets even as their war of survival against the Wraith begins.

However, as the ratings on its new home at the Sci Fi Channel were quite good, the idea was pushed to season six and then to season seven.

Wright had initially intended to set the new show in Antarctica under the ice.

Late in season seven of SG-1, talks began of a spin-off series and the producers were left with a serious dilemma, since the seventh season of Stargate SG-1 had been planned to lead up to the great discovery of the lost city of the Ancients, Atlantis.

The Stargate SG-1 seventh season ended in a two-part episode, "Lost City", which was supposed to be a bridge between Stargate SG-1 and the new spin-off, either a show or a movie, and was not planned to run at the same time as Stargate SG-1.

Wright and Cooper rewrote the script as the two-part season seven finale and moved the setting of the story.

Cooper thought the original Stargate SG-1 series was going to be cancelled after season five, due to Showtime's announcement that they were canceling the show, they came up with the idea of making a new feature film.