Richard Dean Anderson Made A Bold Claim After Seeing Kurt Russell In Stargate

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There was a time when “Stargate” was truly ruling the world of science fiction on television. 1994’s “Stargate” movie was meant to kick off an entire trilogy. That didn’t pan out, but when “Stargate SG-1” premiered in 1997, it opened up the franchise in a huge way, leading to a 10-season run and several spin-offs. One major challenge, though, was casting, since Kurt Russell, who played Jack O’Neill in the movie, wouldn’t be reprising his role in the show. The responsibility then fell to “MacGyver” star Richard Dean Anderson.

The series is set after the events of the movie and centers on SG-1, one of secret military teams of soldiers and scientists who travel through a gateway to other planets and fight against dangerous aliens to protect Earth. Anderson led the series as Jack O’Neill for 177 episodes. That’s why it seems, in retrospect, like a bold claim that he initially said he couldn’t do what Kurt Russell did, who was the only choice for his role in the “Stargate” movie. Anderson knew those were big shoes to fill.

In a January 2026 piece by Woman’s World, series co-creator Brad Wright discussed casting Anderson in the lead role and explained how it went down. Anderson had reservations initially. Here’s what Wright had to say about it:

“When he saw the film he said, ‘I can’t do what Kurt did.’ And after he read the script for the TV show, he said, ‘But I can do this.’ It’s a line I’d written in the pilot when Teal’c says, ‘I have nowhere to go,’ and O’Neill says, ‘You can stay at my place!’ That, to him, was the character. That, to him, is what he thought O’Neill was.”

“Yes, he was running and shooting an alien weapon and helping people escape, but [Anderson] needed the line ‘You can stay at my place’ for it to be the Jack O’Neill he wanted to play,” Brad Wright added. “Just a lighter touch at certain moments.”

In retrospect, it does seem bold for Richard Dean Anderson to say “I can’t do that” when he ended up occupying Jack O’Neill’s shoes for a decade-plus. But he knew that he had to make the role his own, realizing that trying to mimic Kurt Russell would be a fool’s errand. Anderson also appeared in “Stargate: Atlantis” and “Stargate: Continuum.” He wasn’t one of the two actors to appear in over 200 episodes of “SG-1,” but he helped anchor the show from the very beginning.

“I didn’t want to be the focus,” Anderson said in that same Woman’s World piece. “When I had done ‘MacGyver,’ I knew what it was like to carry a show and I just didn’t want to. And thankfully we had an impeccable cast where we kind of created a camaraderie and a kind of rhythm to our characters that fit really well to each other. So I didn’t have to carry anything.”

Indeed, one of the benefits of the show is that it’s a true ensemble piece. Yes, Anderson may have been scolded during an early “Stargate: SG-1” table read, but it’s hard to argue with the final results. Even though Russell originated the role, it’s fair to say that for many (if not most) of the fans of this franchise, Anderson is the definitive Jack O’Neill.

You can grab “Stargate SG-1: The Complete Series” on DVD or Blu-ray from Amazon.