Posted in: SYFY, TV | Tagged: stargate, stargate: atlantis

Jason Momoa: Working on Stargate: Atlantis "Was Like Going to College"

Jason Momoa, who played Ronon Dex on the popular series, explains why working on Stargate: Atlantis "was like going to college" for him.

To say that Jason Momoa was built for superstardom would be an understatement, considering how his first onscreen role was part of the ensemble cast of Baywatch in 1999. Granted, it was on the tail end of the series, but it wouldn't be long until he landed his second major franchise in SYFY's Stargate SG-1 in its first spinoff series, Stargate: Atlantis, in its second season as the proud Satedan warrior, Ronon Dex, where he remained until the series end in 2009. While promoting his film The Wrecking Crew opposite wrestler-turned-actor Dave Bautista, the Supergirl star, who initially played Arthur Curry/Aquaman across four DCEU films, is now the alien antihero Lobo in the new DCU, spoke with MovieZine about his time on the Robert C. Cooper and Brad Wright-created series.

Jason Momoa Reflects the "College" Experience of Stargate: Atlantis

"Stargate Atlantis was like going to college, to tell you the truth. It was four years of my life — you do 22 episodes, roughly takes about nine months out of the year, and you're pretty much dedicated to that," Momoa said, adding that it took a "week and a half" to shoot each episode. "You're really seeing how everything moves. It moves very quickly."

Atlantis starred Joe Flanigan as Lt. Col John Sheppard and Torri Higginson as Elizabeth Weir, who are part of the expeditionary force to establish Earth's influence at an underwater station of the famed city believed to be created by the Ancients. On the Stargate Command side, they're joined by Aiden Ford (Rainbow Sun Francks), Rodney McKay (David Hewlett), and Carson Beckett (Paul McGillion). Once they've established their operations, they're joined by Teyla Emmagan (Rachel Luttrell), leader of the Athosians, and Ronan Dex, a military specialist from Sateda, to help a common foe in the world-raiding Wraith.

"As far as action goes, that was when I was really cutting my teeth. Our stunt coordinators were amazing. We're all friends, and still to this day, I'm very close to a couple of our stunt performers in Canada," Momoa said. "So it was very much like college for me, and after that was when I started writing my own stuff… it gave me a time to grow as an actor and obviously learn all the things I wanted to do as a stunt [performer] — like samurai films and all these things that I loved when I was a kid." For more on Momoa's educational experience and how supportive the fans were, you can check out the complete interview. You can stream Stargate Atlantis, which also starred Amanda Tapping, Jewel Staite, and Robert Picardo, on Hulu and Prime Video.

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