After Bill McCay had written a series of five novels continuing the story the original creators had envisioned, and despite the success of the "Stargate" television series, Dean Devlin stated in 2006 that "he has struck a production deal with MGM and is developing the long-delayed sequel feature films that will pick up the story from the 1994 original." According to Devlin, two movie sequels would have picked up the story from the 1994 original, but not the mythology of the "SG-1" and "Atlantis" series, with the original stars Kurt Russell and James Spader. Devlin regretted giving MGM control over the franchise. The first movie already tapped into Egyptian mythology; the second one would have moved into other mythologies; and the third would tie all the mythologies together. "Stargate SG-1" and "Stargate Atlantis" producer Brad Wright said in 2002 that "Devlin can wish to do a sequel to "Stargate" all he wants. MGM owns the rights, and I doubt very much that they'll ask him to do it. He knows better."