Jason Momoa's Ronon Dex Dreadlocks Created A $10,000 Problem For Stargate Atlantis

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When it launched in 2004, "Stargate Atlantis" may not have had MacGuyver himself, Richard Dean Anderson, but it did have an early-career Jason Momoa. The show was a spin-off from "Stargate SG-1," which starred Dean Anderson as Colonel Jack O'Neil (taking over from Kurt Rusell in the original 1994 movie). "Atlantis," meanwhile, saw Momoa play Ronon Dex, a native of the planet Sateda in the Pegasus galaxy who joins the Atlantis expedition shortly after encountering them for the first time in the season 2 episode "Runner."

"Atlantis" ran for five seasons, and Momoa was there from his season 2 appearance right up until the end, when "Stargate Atlantis" was canceled by the Sci-Fi channel (now SyFy) in 2008. During that time he became an integral part of the show, filling the gap left by Aiden Ford's (Rainbow Sun Francks) departure.

During his time with the Atlantis team, Ronon managed to face off against Teal'c of Chulak (Christopher Judge), escape his homeworld for a second time in the season four episode "Sateda," and even dies in the series finale, only to be revived by a Wraith before being rescued by his crew. But none of these travails were quite as significant as the character's hair, which cost the "Atlantis" production team $10,000.

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We may know Jason Momoa best as Aquaman — a part he got after reluctantly auditioning for another DC role and for which he sported gloriously silken ringlets. But when he debuted in "Stargate Atlantis" he had a full head of dreadlocks which became somewhat of a trademark for Ronon Dex. So much so that when the actor decided he'd had enough of sporting the hairstyle, the Sci-Fi channel (now known as Syfy) refused to let him appear without his locs. By that point, however, it was too late, necessitating a costly fix to restore Ronon's hair for the fifth season.

As detailed in a GateWorld article from 2008, Momoa decided at the end of season four that, after seven years, he wanted to cut his dreadlocks, which at that point weighed five pounds. The producers agreed and the actor cut off his signature hairstyle in the break between seasons 4 and 5. When he returned to resume shooting, the production had saved his locs and sewed them back in for the first three episodes of season 5. But that soon proved to be too much for Momoa, who explained to the outlet how the sewing process took more than nine hours to complete, adding, "It was painful, and I didn't sleep for four days. I grew my hair out when I cut them, and they braided it and sewed my old dreads back in. It looked great — it just took a long time."

According to Momoa, sewing his locs back in made for a significantly painful experience, which gave the actor sores on his head. "The first episode I went into [the office of executive producer] John Smith and said, 'I can't do this. We have to find another way,'" explained Momoa. While that may seem like a gutsy move, it seems the experience of wearing his former dreadlocks was so painful that the actor was willing to be dismissed from the series rather than continue. Luckily, the producers cooperated with their star. Unfortunately, however, the Sci-Fi channel wasn't so amenable.

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After making it through the first day of shooting for season 5 with his old locs sewn back into his existing hair, Jason Momoa decided to cut the locs off again rather than continue with what sounds like a genuinely painful experience. To go on shooting, he started using a wig normally worn by his stunt double, which carried him through the next two episodes. After this, the writers agreed to include a scene in the third episode, "Broken Ties" that showed Ronon having his hair cut, to relieve Momoa from having to don a wig for the rest of the season. But that scene was cut from the final episode after the Sci-Fi channel decided they wanted the character to maintain his signature locs throughout season 5.

The solution? A $10,000 custom wig which turned out to be just as heavy as Momoa's original hair. "Sci-Fi said no," explained the actor, "Which is funny because they didn't want Ronon to have dreadlocks in the first place." Momoa went on to bemoan the fact that he had to wear a wig which basically gave him all the problems of his erstwhile loc, saying, "Sci-Fi won't let me cut it until it comes to the point where it is going to hurt my neck — which is basically the reason I wanted to cut it. So it's going to get to a point where physically I'm going to have to cut this thing off because it weighs just as much as the other one." Still, the actor did admit that it was nice to be able to leave the hair behind when he left the set at the end of every day.

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In 2024, 15 years after "Stargate Atlantis" wrapped up, executive producer and former showrunner Joseph Mallozzi posted on Twitter/X, explaining the hair debacle from his perspective. He recounted how, near the end of the show's fourth season, Jason Momoa "swung by our offices to talk about his character." It was during this discussion that the actor told the writers that he wanted Ronon to "go darkside," prompting Mallozzi to write a scene in which the character shaves his head to "complete his badass transformation." Mallozzi continued:

"It was the ideal opportunity to present a logical, in-story explanation for the change in hairstyle. As it turned out, however, the network felt strongly about the Ronon character's trademark dreads and so we ended up losing the scene — and wigging Jason for the rest of the season."

Though it may seem like a lot to ask Momoa to don a heavy wig after the actor just cut his hair off due to it being too physically demanding to keep, consider the fact that Showtime, the network on which "Stargate: SG1" originally aired, initially had much more sinister demands for the mothership series. Specifically, Showtime pushed for a lot more nudity in "SG-1" before a cast female member fought back after being pressured to don increasingly skimpy outfits. In that respect, asking Jason Momoa to keep his signature 'do doesn't sound like the worst studio note to ever be handed down.