Franchise veterans will guest on 'Stargate Universe'

Amanda Tapping

Credit: Sci Fi

Sci Fi Channel has secured a slew of high-profile guest stars for "SGU: Stargate Universe," including several of the franchise's most familiar faces.

The cable network announced on Wednesday (April 15) that Richard Dean Anderson, Amanda Tapping, Gary Jones and Michael Shanks will all make appearances during the first season of "SGU: Stargate Universe." The new series is currently in production in Vancouver and will launch on SyFy in October 2009 with a two-hour premiere.

"SGU: Stargate Universe" stars Robert Carlyle, Lou Diamond Phillips and Ming-Na, Alaina Huffman, Justin Louis, David Blue, Jamil Walker Smith and Brian J. Smith. The series focuses on a group of citizens -- soldiers, civilians, politicians and scientists alike -- who are forced through a Stargate and find themselves on an abandoned space vessel on an unknown course, uncertain how to get back to Earth.

The Sci Fi release gives no indication on when the guest stars will be appearing, or for how many episodes or in what context. Anderson will reprise his role as General O'Neil, Tapping will return as Samantha Carter, Jones is back as Chief Mst Sgt. Walter Harriman and Shanks will, again, play Dr. Daniel Jackson.

Several new actors will also appear in guest roles in the first season.

Carlo Rota -- best known as Chloe's husband Morris -- will play Carl Strom, head of the International Oversight Advisory (IOA), the civilian oversight committee that heads up the Atlantis Expedition and all funding. 

Christopher McDonald ("Grease 2") will play Senator Alan Armstrong, head of the committee that governs that Stargate program.

Also guesting is Grammy nominee Janelle Monae, who will play herself, performing two songs from her album "Metropolis."

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