In 2010, O'Bannon was asked to help out on ABC's reboot of "V" which was struggling in its second season. Early in 2011, Syfy approached O'Bannon to create and showrun their project "Defiance". "Defiance"s concept included combining a TV series with a massively multiplayer online game that was developed concurrently by Trion Worlds Online. With "Defiance" up and running, O'Bannon moved on to Warner Bros. Television when it was announced the CW had placed a pilot order to make "Cult" in January 2012 nearly seven years after the network's predecessor had bought it. With both of his projects slated to go on the air, O'Bannon chose to follow his longtime passion project.