Long-awaited sequel canned over Alan Rickman's death

The sci-fi comedy Galaxy Quest starred Alan Rickman, Sigourney Weaver and Tim Allen.

It appears the untimely death of much-loved actor Alan Rickman earlier this year has nixed any hope of a sequel to the 1999 sci-fi comedy Galaxy Quest.

Rickman's co-star in the film, Sam Rockwell, revealed that talks were underway to make a follow-up to the cult classic, which saw a bunch of former sci-fi TV stars enlisted to save the world in a real-life battle against alien forces.

"We were ready to sign up for it," Rockwell reveals on the Nerdist podcast.

"You know, Alan Rickman passed away. And then Tim Allen wasn't available. He has a show. Everybody's schedule was all weird. We were going to do this sequel on Amazon. It was going to shoot, like, right now."

A scene from the movie Galaxy Quest.

The deciding factor in the sequel not going ahead, Rockwell says, was Rickman's death in January this year aged 69. Rickman passed away after a short battle with pancreatic cancer. "How do you fill that void of Alan Rickman?" asks Rockwell.

Rockwell contradicts the original film's star, Tim Allen, who immediately following Rickman's death told The Hollywood Reporter that a sequel would go ahead.

"I'm not supposed to say anything - I'm speaking way out of turn here - but Galaxy Quest is really close to being resurrected in a very creative way. It's closer than I can tell you but I can't say more than that. The real kicker is that Alan now has to be left out. It's been a big shock on many levels," he said at the time.

- news.com.au