For a week, Joe Mallozzi has been in the trenches defending Martin Gero’s canceled Stargate series and firing back at Amazon. Now he’s stepped back to make a much bigger argument, and it’s one that isn’t really about Stargate at all.
In a lengthy post on X, the longtime Stargate producer accused genre executives of holding fans in “contempt” and routinely underestimating “their power to make or break a show.” And he made a point of saying he wasn’t singling out any one project.
“I’ve watched this repeat too many times, across too many shows, to be talking about any single one of them,” Mallozzi wrote. “Yet despite the mounting evidence over the past few years, they continue to dismiss the data, repeating the same miscalculations time and again.”
Mallozzi Says The Power Dynamic Is Shifting
Mallozzi’s larger point is that the leverage is moving, and that studios haven’t caught up.
He argued that “technology has rewritten the rules, and the power dynamics are shifting,” describing modern fans as “organized, strategic, and highly data-literate — effectively turning the platforms’ own metrics against them.”
His closing line doubled as a warning to the executives he’s describing: “As the bets get bigger and the audience grows sharper, it will be fascinating to see how this plays out.”
It’s Not Just TV — Mallozzi Says Gaming Has The Same Problem
When a fan noted the same executive blind spot plays out in gaming — studios assuming they can take the theme and aesthetic of a beloved property and “reproduce it anywhere at anytime with anyone” while gutting the core — Mallozzi agreed flatly.
“Yes, I have absolutely seen the same thing in gaming as well,” he replied.
That crossover is the part that should worry every studio sitting on legacy IP, not just Amazon. Mallozzi’s contention is that the contempt-for-fans pattern is industry-wide, and that the people who built these audiences in the first place are the ones being ignored.
Mallozzi Blames Influencer Culture And Algorithms
Another fan pinned part of the problem on influencer culture; executives chasing creators with millions of followers without grasping that the audience for 60-second videos isn’t the same audience that commits to a series week after week.
Mallozzi confirmed he’d seen exactly that thinking up close, recalling a producer who once pitched him a guest spot for a five-year-old kung fu internet sensation with roughly five million views.
Asked why executives discount actual viewers in the first place, his answer was blunt: “They place too much stock in the algorithms. Also, they don’t understand genre, much less fandom.”
UPDATE: Mallozzi’s “contempt” argument is now positioned as one data point in a wider pattern of Hollywood blaming fans for its failures across Star Wars, Marvel, and DC.
Michael Shanks Is Cheering The Exact Fan Organization Mallozzi Is Describing
If Mallozzi is right that today’s fans are “organized, strategic, and highly data-literate,” the Save Stargate campaign is the live demonstration, and Michael Shanks is cheering it on in real time.
As fans coordinated petitions, banner fundraisers, and call-in pushes, Shanks reposted the effort with open approval: “This is how you organize!! Well done! #SaveStargate.” When another fan begged him to step in directly, he kept it short: “Trying….”
It’s a clean illustration of Mallozzi’s thesis: the talent is openly siding with an organized fanbase against the studio’s decision, and the fans are applying coordinated, data-aware pressure rather than just venting into the void.
The Campaign Isn’t Slowing Down
That momentum is showing up in the numbers.
As we reported, the main Change.org petition has climbed past 75,000 signatures, a fan GoFundMe is funding a #SaveStargate aerial banner over Amazon Studios headquarters, and Mallozzi has separately accused Amazon of “trolling fandom” while shooting down a rumor that Netflix could license the IP and ride to the rescue.
Amazon canceled Gero’s series despite a completed 20-week writers room and pre-production already underway in the UK, with filming set for the fall, a decision widely tied to the studio’s executive shakeup.
Amazon MGM Studios still hasn’t publicly addressed the fan revolt, the petitions, or the disputed reports that the show lacked broad appeal, but again, they seemed to be trolling fans.
Whether Mallozzi is right that the power has truly shifted may come down to this exact fight. If an organized, data-literate fanbase can force a studio to reverse a cancellation, Stargate becomes the proof of his argument. If not, it becomes one more entry on the long list of executive contempt he’s describing.
