After more than a decade, Robert C. Cooper is parting ways with the Stargate world he was instrumental in shaping.

‘It’s been a long road with this franchise – 17 seasons, 2 movies, 14 years,’ says Cooper, who is co-creator and an executive producer of the latest installment of the long-running science fiction series, Stargate Universe (SGU), currently halfway through production on season 2 in Vancouver.

‘It’s a very rare thing to be involved with a show for this long and I feel very privileged,’ adds the series writer, director and producer. ‘But you don’t get into this business to do the same thing all the time. And I am looking forward to new challenges.’

Cooper will continue to have a consulting role on SGU for the remainder of this season and will take an executive producer credit. Cooper notes that his reduced role on the series was planned from the start of season 2.

Cooper was hired as a writer on the first season of Stargate SG-1 back in 1997. He worked his way up to exec producer and took the helm as showrunner on seasons eight through ten of the popular series. In 2004 he created the spin-off Stargate Atlantis with Brad Wright and in 2009 the pair developed Stargate Universe.

Cooper plans to develop new show ideas – and not necessarily sci-fi.

‘Although I love the genre I have diverse interests and would like to do other projects too,’ he says.

SGU is produced by American studio MGM for SyFy. Ideally, Cooper says he would like to stay in Canada to produce new projects.

‘I am hoping I don’t have to go to LA,’ he says. ‘I think there are a lot of opportunities here and the Canadian industry is starting to understand that we can produce shows for a global marketplace and the world will be interested.’

Cooper says he is going to take some time to figure out his next steps.

‘I am exploring options,’ he says. ‘I need to figure out if I will start my own production company or partner with another company.’