Season 5

was the planned fifth (and presumably final) season of the Sanctuary television series. Unfortunately, the series was cancelled before production of its upcoming last six episodes could commence.
== Premise ==
Known plans for season 5 of Sanctuary included working from the new Underground Sanctuary and the long awaited for return of fan-favorite series regular character Ashley Magnus. Amanda Tapping has stated in several interviews and at convention panels that Helen Magnus had found a way to save her daughter during her 113-year-long trip back through time without interfering with the course of the natural timeline. Amanda had conferred with Emilie Ullerup about this, to which she was on board to reprise her character. Unfortunately the show was cancelled before this plan could be filmed and shown in-universe. YouTube - Amanda Tapping at Fan Expo, August 2012. Part 2/3Minute mark 10:23 - 11:34. Emilie Ullerup not able to return twice previously due to scheduling conflicts, but Amanda Tapping wanted her back for season 5, still resolute that she never wanted the character written off.
=== How Helen Magnus could have saved Ashley ===
The set up for this already exists in-universe as seen in when Helen Magnus is searching for a way Ashley could have potentially survived her supposedly fatal teleport. In her search, Magnus's analysis of the computer recordings from the EM field that night show that it had detected an unexplained weakening in the EM shield at the exact moment Ashley teleported at 18:29 hours; possibly letting her pass through the barrier. Neither Will Zimmerman nor Magnus could figure out the real reason for why it had occurred outside of throwing around personal theories. None of Magnus's tests showed that Ashley landed just outside of the Sanctuary or anywhere inside the building, nor still potentially stuck in the EM shield's buffer system. (All of this evidence just simply supports that Ashley isn't physically 'there' at the Old City Sanctuary anymore, not necessarily that she's also been disintegrated.)
When Helen Magnus went back in time, she absolutely knew that she could not directly interfere or stop terrible things from happening; having to let things play out, as any noticeable change could derail the course of natural history.YouTube - Amanda Tapping VIP panel Part 3 Armageddon Expo Auckland 2011Minute mark 14:53 - 17:51. Ashley could return but nothing could change (Magnus couldn’t interfere or stop bad events) that we “see” until once you get to the new sanctuary. Magnus weaving her way through time. Being that Future-Helen was able to secretively create the Underground Sanctuary by cleverly weaving her way through time to build it, it is possible that Future-Helen knowing about Ashley's teleport had intentionally interfered with the EM shield to create a tiny 'hole', snatching Ashley's energy signal mid-teleport, to redirect her to land at the new sanctuary; keeping her hidden there for the next three years until after the end of season 4 where she would have finally been revealed on-screen in season 5.YouTube - Denver Starfest 2014 InterviewMinute mark 3:15 - 4:17. Cancellation due to lease and financing / Syfy late on deciding.Minute mark 4:43 - 5:18. The hope for season 5 to find Ashley at the new sanctuary.
This theory is highly plausible to have occurred, as Ashley being alive for all of this time wouldn't interfere with history considering that she has still been physically removed from the known events of the Sanctuary timeline by having her live underground instead of up on the surface; most likely spending her time there helping her mother operate the new sanctuary.YouTube - Armageddon 2011 Auckland Amanda Tapping 1/2Minute mark 24:32 – 26:03. Ashley return next season in an organic way that made sense.
== Cancellation ==
Several factors had culminated into the ultimate decision by Syfy to officially cancel the show, preventing Sanctuary from having a fifth season.YouTube - Amanda Tapping panel (Gatecon 2018)Minute mark 30:36 - 34:12. Full explanation of how Sanctuary was cancelled.
=== Factors to take into account ===
Independently financed
Sanctuary was a completely privately financed TV series; not funded by large production companies like the mass amounts of other regular TV shows.YouTube - Amanda Tapping VIP 2011 Part 2Minute mark 3:35 - 4:18. Independently financed show. During the time the web series was transitioning into becoming a TV series, due to running out of money from not making enough revenue back from viewer webisode purchases as the show was heavily pirated across the internet, Sanctuary creators had to sell the mass majority (if not all) of the show's rights to their private financier The Beedie Group (an industrial development company - who were fans of the science fiction genre) in order for them to continue to invest heavily in the show as a single TV episode of Sanctuary typically cost $2 million in production expenditures; they had already invested at least $5 million into the webisodes and a total $26 million per thirteen episode season / $40 million for season 3, gap financing the entire project and by the end of the show had finally started to see some returns.
Parent company
Syfy's parent company NBC Universal had been recently acquired by Comcast on January 28th, 2011.Wikipedia - Comcast / NBC Universal Because of recent changes in ownership and other ongoing trade-dealings etc., by the time early-2012 rolled around for the usual television show renewal process and announcements, Syfy was put on hold; not being able to green-light series productions. Syfy itself wanted to renew Sanctuary for a fifth season consisting of six episodes. 
: Note: Around this time, Networks had started a new practice to give popular shows six-episode final seasons in order to wrap up storylines; so as to not end on a cliffhanger that would frustrate audiences.
Even though all other international markets had wanted to see Sanctuary continue and had agreed on a fifth season renewal, The Beedie Group would not move forward without a confirmation of backing support from the major US market.
Lease renewal
At the same time Sanctuary was stalled on renewal from Syfy, the lease for the building the show used to film in had come up for renewal as well. To continue to use the building, The Beedie Group would have to sign a new contract to rent the property for a span of three more years.
=== Decision from The Beedie Group ===
Due to the uncertainty of renewal caused by delayed response from Syfy, eventually hearing back (too late) from Syfy about having only a six-episode long season 5, and having to sign a three-year lease to rent the property, The Beedie Group made the financial decision to stem their losses by altogether pulling their funding and not resigning the lease; effectively putting an end to the production of the tv series. YouTube - Chris Heyerdahl Armageddon 2012 VIP PanelMinute mark 23:43 - 23:59. Sanctuary was filmed in an old bicycle factory assembly warehouse for Norco Bicycles.Minute mark 41:14 - 45:01. Everything was saved on-set for each season until funding is secured last minute. Syfy finally given thumbs up for six episodes. The Beedie Group didn’t want to put more money in. To do anything with IP, The Beedie Group would have to want to put money in or sell for ~$45 million.
: Note: Sanctuary was a passion project for The Beedie Group and not the company's primary focus nor did the show have a large sum in ROI; waning the group's interest in providing continued finance. Many cast and crew penny-pinched the entire run of the series, volunteering portions of their pay to go back into the show as they valued the experience to work on the project more so than their monetary compensation for their time and efforts. A notable example of this was Amanda Tapping who took a small pay as an actor and donated her added pay for being an Executive Producer. When the decision to not renew the lease occurred, the cast and crew were suddenly left on short notice with a mad-rush of 3 days to vacate and clear out all of their belongings and show items, etc. from the entire building and offices.YouTube - Amanda Tapping Saturday Panel Shore Leave 2013 Part 1Minute mark 5:26 - 7:27. Sanctuary Cancelled. Three days to clear out. IP controlled by financiers. Comcast/Syfy issues. Many of the show items / props that were saved were donated to the charity organization Sanctuary for Kids and auctioned off in order to raise funds.
=== Announcement from Syfy ===
Now that the show had lost their location space and their major financial backer(s), Syfy in turn had to announce the cancellation of the series on May 21st, 2012.
== The future of Sanctuary==
Due to The Beedie Group owning the rights to the Sanctuary IP, they control the release and dissemination of Sanctuary related materials. Even though Damian Kindler, Martin Wood, and Amanda Tapping had wanted to officially release original music created for the show by Andrew Lockington, they couldn't move forward with the plan without approval.YouTube - Amanda Tapping VIP Panel Armageddon Expo Auckland 2011 - Part 1Minute mark 6:21 - 6:38. Soundtrack release controlled by IP holder financier.Minute mark 6:41-8:35. Story arc writing time maybe one month. Money to script from financiers. Any future seasons, web-series, movies, spin-offs, reboots, comics, books, apps, video games, etc. with the Sanctuary IP are essentially dead-in-the-water unless The Beedie Group are willing to either sell the rights or decide to get re-involved with the project.
=== Updates ===
* Update: Continued talks of potentially still trying to release things such as the music or create more content had been "started" as late as just before September 23rd, 2018 (upload date of video source).
* Update: As of Amanda Tapping's interview with Suanne Braun on April 4th, 2020, the IP / rights to create new Sanctuary content and sell existing episodes have been bought by an unnamed someone.YouTube - Amanda Tapping: HathorHosts interview by Suanne Braun (Instagram live interview)Minute mark 26:24 - 27:16. IP / rights being purchased.
** According to a report by Deadline.com (further reported on by BloodyDisgusting.com on March 10th, 2020), “Executive producer Martin Wood and All Canadian Entertainment have inked a deal with original rights holders The Beedie Group to start development on new installments.”BloodyDisgusting.com - The Syfy Creature Series “Sanctuary” is Being Brought Back to Life After Nearly Ten Years
* Update: June 30th, 2021 - A GateWorld.net article discusses a recent Deadline.com article. A Sanctuary reboot/miniseries is still in a development process.GateWorld.net - That Sanctuary Reboot Is Still In Development The MPCA has hired a new executive in charge of television to develop a new series based on Damian Kindler's 2008 fantasy show.
** June 30th, 2021 - Excerpts from a new Deadline.com article about Amy Hartwick becoming president of MPCA: "Among the first projects she’s taking on is a reboot of Damian Kindler’s 2007 sci-fi series Sanctuary, about people and creatures with extraordinary powers, which ran for four seasons on Syfy. ... Sanctuary and Just My Luck were projects on MPCA’s slate that Hartwick identified when she started at the company last month and began pursuing. She also has been acquiring IP and developing original ideas that fit indie MPCA’s mandate as a supplier of four-quadrant content." Deadline.com - Amy Hartwick Joins Brad Krevoy’s MPCA As President Of Television To Lead Series Expansion; ‘Sanctuary’ Reboot, ‘Just My Luck’ Among First Projects
== References ==
Category:Seasons