Kurt Russell’s Real Reason for Repeatedly Turning Down Stargate Has OG Fans Buzzing

Here is a fun bit of sci-fi history: the movie that kicked off the Stargate universe almost didn’t have Kurt Russell in it. Wrong script, tense rewrites, hair notes, a trailer standoff, and a paycheck story that sounds like urban legend — this one has everything.

How Kurt Russell ended up doing Stargate (after saying no)

Producers Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich were mounting Stargate on their own, without a major studio behind them, and they wanted Russell. Problem: he kept passing. Turns out he was reading the wrong draft — an ancient version that never should have escaped the office. Once they finally got the actual shooting script to him, he came around.

Russell still had notes. He pushed for changes on the page and even in the hair department, which sounds trivial until you remember his look basically became part of the movie’s identity. He also didn’t come cheap. Devlin and Emmerich kept sweetening the offer to land the star power, eventually paying Russell millions. One oft-repeated tidbit says he wound up with roughly twice his usual rate because a global survey pegged him as the only actor with zero 'unlikability.' Believe it, don’t believe it — it’s very Hollywood either way.

The shoot got spicy: rewrites, trailers, and one perfect line

Once cameras rolled, both Russell and co-star James Spader were picky about dialogue and regularly pushed for rewrites. Spader even refused to leave his trailer one day until pages were fixed. According to Devlin, Russell stormed in to settle it and delivered this all-timer:

'Of course it’s horrible. That’s why they pay you a million dollars. If it was brilliant, you’d do it for free.'

Context matters: Russell was coming off a rough, borderline soul-sucking experience on Tombstone and was genuinely weighing whether to keep doing this at all. He was also nervous about how Stargate would land. Not exactly the most zen headspace for a dusty sci-fi epic in the Arizona sun.

Release, reception, and the long tail

Despite the turbulence, Stargate hit. The widely cited worldwide gross is $196.6 million on a $55 million budget. There’s also a report that pegs the box office at $156 million — and, for a modern yardstick, roughly $434 million in 2025 dollars. Critics were mixed at first, but audiences were into the high-concept mash-up of ancient Egypt and alien tech, and the movie’s world-building aged well.

No, it never sat on the same shelf as Star Wars or Star Trek, but it turned into a bona fide cult favorite and launched a TV empire: Stargate SG-1 (10 seasons) plus multiple spin-offs after that. Russell’s turn as the stoic, battle-worn Col. Jack O'Neil grounds the movie while Spader’s earnest, eccentric Dr. Daniel Jackson gives it a brainy counterweight — the pairing is the secret sauce.

• Title: Stargate (1994), directed by Roland Emmerich
• Leads: Kurt Russell (Colonel Jack O'Neil), James Spader (Dr. Daniel Jackson)
• Villain: Jaye Davidson as Ra
• Genre: Science fiction adventure
• Budget: $55 million
• Box office: $196.6 million worldwide; another report cites $156 million (roughly $434 million in 2025 dollars)
• Shot in the Yuma, Arizona desert — brutal conditions, lots of sand in places you don’t want sand
• Production headaches: script and dialogue fights; reports of substance issues around Davidson; concerns from the director about whether the VFX would deliver; the usual heat-and-dust misery
• Legacy: Cult classic status and the launching pad for the long-running Stargate TV franchise

Bottom line: Russell nearly bounced, demanded changes (great haircut call, honestly), battled through a messy shoot, and still ended up the beating heart of a movie that stuck around for decades.

Stargate is currently streaming on MGM+ in the U.S. What do you think of Russell in this one?