By Jennifer Asencio
| Updated 2 minutes ago

For one brief moment, it looked like fans were going to get a beloved show rebooted into something new, but it was not meant to be. Amazon Studios cancelled their planned revival of Stargate, which devastated the cast, crew, and fans in equal measure. It was going to be helmed by veteran Stargate writer Martin Gero. The other executive producers included those who had a direct hand in the creation of the original movie, Stargate SG-1 and Stargate: Atlantis. Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin co-wrote the movie, and Emmerich directed it.

Brad Wright and Joe Mallozzi, who have long been associated with the Stargate franchise, were also brought on board, along with Joey Harold and Tory Tunnell. This revival with this creative team behind it had the power to bring Stargate back to the present time. And that is where the show ran into the snag that ultimately led to it being cancelled by Amazon Studios.

Gero and others involved, including actors like SG-1 star Michael Shanks and sci-fi staple Robert Patrick, urged fans to push back against this decision by Amazon Studios. Creators and actors were so invested in the quality of their content that they were willing to speak out so publicly. Fans rallied behind the actors, and soon #SaveStargate gained momentum on social media. There was a Change.org petition that gained over 113,000 signatures as of this writing. Fans created websites dedicated to saving Stargate. That is how deeply fans feel about the Stargate franchise.

A Flawed Reboot Logic

The reason that Amazon Studios gave for canceling the reboot is that they felt the show would appeal only to the original fans and not to a broader “modern audience.” We really need to just move beyond that descriptor. The modern audience doesn’t watch science fiction; they just demand that everyone else hold their worldview and have diversity and messaging that so deeply twists the story it wouldn’t be what fans wanted anyway.

Many other revivals that were cancelled or died after the first season often saw the cast and crew blaming fans for not tuning in to their show. We’ve since watched Sabrina and a rebooted Charmed come and go with characters that remind us nothing of what we used to love about the original series. We are given lectures on what the message should be. You can no longer really watch any sort of programming without the “modern agenda” being forced into it, bludgeoned with such force that it resembles nothing about the original, but checks corporate boxes on gratuitously inclusive metrics. That is all the studios seem to care about, even if it costs them billions of dollars.

That is the thing that Amazon did not fully understand or want to understand. Maybe the revival didn’t check enough of their corporate boxes for them to avoid backlash from a vocal minority that demands these companies bend the knee.

Here it is, though: if the quality of the show and the storytelling is good, you will bring in fans. With Gero and the others at the helm, the original fans would’ve flocked to Stargate. Word of mouth of how great it was would spread. Those fans would want to share it with their friends and family. That brings in more viewers and more of those metrics a company looks at. SG-1 ran for a decade. Atlantis lasted five seasons, and Universe lasted only two before it was cancelled with many plots unresolved. They later released a comic book to help tie up some of those loose ends.

When done properly, Stargate has staying power with fans who wanted to watch programs that had great storytelling and emotional weight. It was axed because it did not appeal to the modern audience. That is not to say that Amazon Studios is done with Stargate; they are just not moving forward with the production helmed by Gero and the others. We will see if this bold strategy pays off for them, or if their future revival fails to generate traction with the modern audience, as we’ve seen many times already.

TL;DR: Watch Japan vs. Ireland in the 2026 Nations Championship for free on ITVX. Access this free live stream from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

It’s week two of the 2026 Nations Championship, and we’re getting another stack of northern vs. southern hemisphere fixtures.

Both Japan and Ireland scored wins last week and will enter this weekend’s contest with some momentum. Japan scored the bigger win last week, beating Italy 27-10, but arguably had easier competition. Ireland finished with a two-point lead over the formidable Australia. But which team will keep the momentum going?

If you’re interested in watching the 2026 Nations Championship from anywhere in the world, we’ve got all the information you need.

When is Japan vs. Ireland?

Japan vs. Ireland in the 2026 Nations Championship kicks off at 11:10 a.m. BST on July 11. This fixture takes place at the McDonald Jones Stadium, Australia.

How to watch Japan vs. Ireland for free

Japan vs. Ireland in the 2026 Nations Championship is available to live stream for free on ITVX.

ITVX is geo-restricted to the UK, but anyone can secure access with a VPN. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in the UK, meaning you can livestream the 2026 Nations Championship for free from anywhere in the world.

Livestream Japan vs. Ireland in the 2026 Nations Championship for free by following these simple steps:

1. Sign up for a streaming-friendly VPN (we recommend ExpressVPN)

2. Download the app to your device of choice

3. Open up the app and connect to a server in the UK

4. Visit ITVX

5. Watch Japan vs. Ireland for free from anywhere in the world

The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but they do tend to offer generous money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can watch the 2026 Nations Championship without committing your cash. This is obviously not a long-term strategy, but it gives you enough time to stream multiple weekends before recovering your investment.

ExpressVPN’s regular 30-day money-back guarantee is not available for any subscriptions purchased during the FIFA World Cup between June 10 and July 11. ExpressVPN remains our top pick for sport, but you will need to pay the monthly rate until that offer comes back into play. Alternatively, Proton VPN still offers that all-important money-back guarantee.

What is the best VPN for ITVX?

ExpressVPN is the best choice for bypassing geo-restrictions to stream live sport on ITVX, for a number of reasons:

• Servers in 105 countries

• Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more

• Strict no-logging policy so your data is secure

• Fast connection speeds free from throttling

• Up to 10 simultaneous connections

• 30-day money-back guarantee (after FIFA World Cup)

A two-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $68.40 and includes an extra four months for free — 81% off for a limited time. This plan includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and usually offers a generous 30-day money-back guarantee. Alternatively, you can get a one-month plan for just $12.99.

Live stream the 2026 Nations Championship for free with ExpressVPN.

By Jonathan Klotz
| Published 15 seconds ago

Modern sci-fi owes a lot to the 1967 one-season wonder, The Prisoner, a surreal masterpiece that left the viewer wondering what the hero did to be trapped in such a bizarre seaside village, why he was trapped, and how he’d get out. Referring to its hero as only Number Six, The Prisoner’s influence can be felt in countless other series, but one of the best to pull from it aired on the SyFy channel for three seasons, from 2015 through 2017: Dark Matter.

Six strangers wake up on a spaceship with no memory of who they are or how they got there. They use the order they woke up in for names and start working together to solve the mystery. Unlike The Prisoner, they eventually figure everything out, but once they have all the answers, the questions are changed. 

Dark Matter Opens With A Twist

Dark Matter opens up with a dark, beat-up ship as one by one, the six passengers, four men, one woman (The Rookie’s Melissa O’Neil), and a teenage girl, wake up, each with no memory of who they are. On the ship designated Raza, they find a cache of weapons and an android, and learn that the last destination was a mining colony where the workers need protection from the Ferrous Corporation.  On any other sci-fi series, this would be a no-brainer, except the first big twist of the series is revealed at the end of the pilot: the passengers are the bad guys. 

Learning from the android that all of them are wanted criminals, except for Number Five, puts the recovered cache in a new light. They stole it from the group contracted to help the miners, and it’s up to them to kill the miners. It’s the first of many, many twists that Dark Matter throws at viewers during its three seasons, and as far as even the Season 1 reveals go, it’s fairly tame. 

The question remains: who wiped their memories, and why? For as long as that goes unanswered, the crew is left wondering, who can they trust? Who knows more than they are letting on? 

The Prisoner Influence Goes Beyond The Pilot

The universe of Dark Matter is small, as far as sci-fi universes go, with the story placing more emphasis on the characters themselves than any universe-shattering conflict. It has that too, but watching the group of bad guys grapple with their past actions, develop into better people, or fail to become better and embrace being the villain of someone else’s story, drives the story forward more than a hunt for a technological MacGuffin. 

The Prisoner was significantly smaller in scale, while Dark Matter lets the passengers out into the world, and yet, they can’t escape their past. From the pilot to the final episode, who they were will always define them.

Had the Patrick McGoohan classic series been allowed to continue, that was what was going to come next. Number Six would journey across the world but always remain under close watch, control, and unable to escape his fate as a prisoner. 

Dark Matter And Stargate Share The Same Creative DNA

Dark Matter is heavily influenced by another sci-fi series: Stargate. The series was created by Joseph Mallozzi, one of the most prolific writers for the other Star franchise, contributing to SG-1, Atlantis, Universe, and the upcoming Amazon series. If you’ve seen the back half of SG-1, you’ll feel right at home in the world of Dark Matter.

Like Stargate, Dark Matter was also treated unfairly by SyFy, which picked up the series but didn’t develop it, relegating it to the network’s lower-priority original programming in terms of budgets and marketing.

There’s a good chance you haven’t ever watched the series, or even heard about it. Those who have given it a chance, though, have fallen in love with the ragtag crew. 

A Sleeper Hit Streaming For Free

Finding Dark Matter is both easy and surprisingly difficult. It’s streaming for free on the CW website, but try to find anything about it, and you’ll wander into the 2024 Apple TV series, Dark Matter.

It’s such a common problem that even the Reddit for the SyFy series has been overtaken by fans of the new series. Like “Redemption” or “Rise of,” it’s time for the words “Dark Matter” to be retired from Hollywood for a few decades. 

Once you find it, you’ll enjoy Dark Matter. Yes, there are a lot of plot holes explained away by the memory wipe, but there are also a lot of expertly crafted character development and further twists to the story. For better or for worse, this is the type of sci-fi we always need more of: a crew, a spaceship, and morally dubious missions that may or may not save the day.