We are both gutted and relieved to learn that plans to start production on 'Galaxy Quest 2' were cancelled this year in light of the death of Alan Rickman. It's a shame that the world is as yet being denied a sequel to one of the greatest sci-fi comedies on record, but it's definitely for the best.

Galaxy QuestGalaxy Quest was a cult hit upon its 1999 release

The 1999 cult film was never exactly a blockbuster, but it still has a devoted fanbase. That's why many will react with utter disappointment at news that a sequel to 'Galaxy Quest' was going to  shoot this year for Amazon, but the deal was never signed off when Alan Rickman died.

Sam Rockwell, who appeared in the movie with Tim Allen, Rickman and Sigourney Weaver among others, confessed the situation in an interview with Nerdist and expressed that he'd liked to have seen a franchise. 'They were going to do a sequel on Amazon and we were ready to sign up, and Alan Rickman passed away and Tim Allen wasn't available - he has a show - and everybody's schedule was all weird', he said. 'It was going to shoot, like, right now. And how do you fill that void of Alan Rickman? That's a hard void to fill.'

That's true enough. For those who don't know the movie, it's a film about a group of TV actors who star in a 'Star Trek' type show called 'Galaxy Quest', and, naturally, they meet a lot of weird costumed fans at a convention held 18 years after the show was axed. Some of those fans claim to be Thermians from the Klaatu Nebula, who turn out to be aliens who have discovered broadcasts of the show and taken it as factual documents. When they are faced with an intergalactic threat, they enlist the help of the actors - who they believe really are the able-bodied crew of the NSEA Protector spaceship (which the aliens have replicted in their own craft) - to save their people. 

Rickman played Alexander Dane who is cynical and resentful that he is only known for playing the ship's alien science officer Dr. Lazarus on the show, while Rockwell had the role of Guy Fleegman; a bit part actor whose 'Galaxy Quest' role was never given a name. Rickman really was the star of that movie though, and it was no wonder he was brought back as the depressed android on the 2005 re-boot of 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'.

More: Funniest Alan Rickman moments

Rickman, who passed away at the age of 69 from pancreatic cancer back in January this year, even joked about the idea of a 'Galaxy Quest' sequel in an interview with Moviefone in 2013. 'They'd need a few zimmer frames', he quipped.