Babylon 5 Fans Should Get Excited Over JMS’s Bruce Boxleitner Story

If you’re a Babylon 5 fan, then we have a feeling that you liked what J. Michael Straczynski had to announce on Wednesday. Tweeting out a look at the title page to the script (with the full title redacted for now), JMS confirmed that an animated film was on the way from Warner Bros. Animation & Warner Bros Home Entertainment. “Classic B5: raucous, heartfelt, nonstop, a ton of fun through time and space & a love letter to the fans,” JMS wrote, with the promise of more details to come next week. But that didn’t mean JMS was done sharing with the fans just how excited he is about it – and to do that, he shared a story involving series star Bruce Boxleitner and a very cool moment they had while recording audio commentary for the film.

Here’s a look at the first of JMS’s four-tweet Boxleitner story about what went down during the session, followed by the full text of what JMS had to share:

“Here’s a story that may best illustrate why I’m so happy about how the [Babylon 5 Animated Film] came out and what fans have to look forward to,” JMS began. “A few weeks ago, I and [Bruce Boxleitner] met to do an audio commentary for the movie. Bruce had not yet seen the movie, only snippets a few seconds long during the final voice session to do little fixes. When he sat beside me in the recording studio, and no one was around, he leaned over and said, ‘How is it, really?’ with eyes that, like my own, had seen so much disappointment over the years. I said, “Bruce, it’s the best thing we’ve done since the original show, hands down.” He seemed pleased and hopeful but still cautious.” The franchise creator continued, “Then they started the playback, and Bruce’s jaw hit the floor and stayed there for the entire thing, punctuated by this great big grin of excitement at what he was seeing. He got so caught up in it that he kept forgetting to do the commentary, so if there’s a lot of me and only some of Bruce in the final version, my apologies, but that’s the reason why. He left that room as happy as I’ve ever seen him. *That’s* what’s coming,”

Babylon 5: JMS Announces Animated Film

Here’s a look at the tweet posted by JMS on Wednesday announcing the animated film (as well as the full text from JMS’s series of tweets) – with the movie title, release date & additional details starting to hit next week:

BABYLON 5 ANIMATED MOVIE coming from Warner Bros. Animation & WB Home Entertainment! Classic B5: raucous, heartfelt, nonstop, a ton of fun through time and space & a love letter to the fans. Movie title, release date and other details coming one week from today.

And just to be clear, this brand new original animated movie is already finished and in the can. So it’s 100% real, happening, and coming out very soon.

Again, full release details and other info will come next week from Warners. If you’re excited about the idea–and as an aside, if this does well there will be more animated movies, maybe on a regular basis–let the world and WB know and crush whatever’s trending

I’m ridiculously excited about the #B5AnimatedMovie because it feels the most B5-ish of anything we’ve done since the original show. Warners was terrific in giving me the freedom to write the story I wanted, and the animation is phenomenal. It’s fun, deep, emotional, classic B5.

And here’s a look at JMS’s tweet from last week letting B5 fans know to keep next Wednesday, May 3rd, focused on their radars: