Of all the shows that have been famously cancelled before their time, none consistently top the list quite like Fox’s sci-fi series Firefly. The Emmy-winning, spacefaring adventure epic from Joss Whedon only lasted for a single season in 2002 before the Serenity was decommissioned, but the spark it ignited has yet to fade nearly 25 years later. Fan support has kept the Nathan Fillion-led show alive, both officially through the 2005 movie continuation Serenity and unofficially through their own stories and a continued dedication to what could’ve been. At long last, though, their patience was rewarded this weekend when Fillion, Alan Tudyk, Gina Torres, Jewel Staite, Morena Baccarin, Sean Maher, and Summer Glau announced during a reunion panel at Awesome Con moderated by Collider’s Maggie Lovitt that the adventure may finally continue with a new animated series.
Development has officially begun on the project with Whedon’s blessing, though the creator himself isn’t in the fold. Marc Guggenheim and Tara Butters will instead be co-showrunners, while Fillion is involved in writing. It’s set to take place before Serenity, continuing with a similar structure to the 14-episode original series while building a bridge towards that ending. Fillion’s Collision33 is backing the animated continuation alongside 20th Century Animation. There is much more to the process, though, both on a technical and emotional level, that Fillion was able to dig into throughout the panel.
Firefly has had some continuations on the page in the form of both comic book miniseries and novels, but any hopes of bringing Mal and the crew back on-screen have never gone far. According to Fillion, this latest attempt has been in the works for “Only about five years,” before the announcement, enough time to make substantial progress. “It is not easy! If it were not easy, everybody would do it, but we are at the final stage. It is that close.” Keeping such a bombshell a secret has similarly been a challenge, though Fillion credited everyone who was looped in on the big surprise, adding, “There are some people out there in the world who actually know about this already who have kept this very hush-hush, which I really appreciate that, very much.”
Fillion Reveals the ‘Firefly’ Continuation Pilot Is Written and What’s Needed From Fans
The original series took place in 2517, following the Serenity and its crew of renegades, led by Captain Mal Reynolds, as they operate on the fringes of space at a time when the supergovernment known as the Alliance runs everything. Mal, bitter from being on the wrong side of the civil war that led to the current state of the world, finds himself caught in a conspiracy that puts him in the Alliance’s crosshairs, making his and his crew’s existence even more complicated. Between his experience leading the series and his years on television and film since then, from The Rookie to Castle and, more recently, Superman, Fillion had plenty to bring to the table as a writer to continue expanding on where Whedon left off. “We have the pilot,” he confirmed. “I’m writing two episodes by myself.”
However, he also acknowledged that his role is more to season the series with his ideas than to be the main creative engine behind it. “I’ve said this before, I consider what writers do is like a Thanksgiving meal. And what I do is more like pepper. I couldn’t make a Thanksgiving meal, but I’ve got a great handle on the pepper.” That’s where Guggenheim and Butters come in. Guggenheim was one of the key creators of the Arrowverse on The CW, being credited as the co-creator of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow and Arrow, while Butters most recently served as showrunner for Season 1 of Gen V and also ran Marvel’s Agent Carter.
While they have just about everything to get Firefly back up and running in animated form, there’s still one crucial missing part keeping things grounded for now — a home. Fillion was asked what fans can do to get the attention of streaming services, networks, or wherever to get the animated series where it needs to be. When Lovitt mentioned rewatching Firefly and Serenity on streaming to show support, he confirmed, “That is actually happening as we speak. I think Netflix has said it’s #11 right now. That’s one thing you can do that streamers pay attention to, so you’re doing everything right.” In an already treacherous streaming environment, a show like Firefly with such a dedicated fanbase and name recognition despite its short-lived status may have a leg up, especially if the numbers are what streaming services want to see.
The Animated ‘Firefly’ Series Will Be Canon to the Show
One thing that Fillion does not want with the Firefly animated series is for it to exist on a different continuity than Whedon’s original work. While comics and novels can be good ground to explore and expand on potential stories outside the bounds of the original reality, he’s most interested in delivering on the potential the show never got a chance to realize. “I am totally cool with the reality we created,” he said. “I think that’s what fans want. I’m not gonna change anything up and make anything new.” This is all about recapturing the magic from 2002, as he added, “I want what I loved.“
Keeping with that, he noted that there was originally an idea that tackled both the before and after of Serenity, but it didn’t fit with his or the rest of the cast’s idea of getting the whole band back together to continue the adventure. Serenity is the end, and he wants to revive the dynamic everyone had before they reached that climactic finale.
“There was an idea thrown around about, ‘We’ll tell some stories about before Serenity, we’ll tell some stories about after Serenity,’ I said, ‘I’m not interested about what happens after Serenity, I’m interested in what happens before Serenity. With all my friends. There’s clearly a journey that’s been made. I want to see the steps of that journey. They clearly learn a lot about River in the time since the series and the movie. They’ve gleaned a lot. I want to know how they gleaned it and when they figured out that’s what was going on. What did they do about it? Had some ideas about that.”
While the animated series will bring back the main cast members who are still alive, including Adam Baldwin, who was not present at the panel, Fillion also saw this continuation as a chance to bring more of the people he loves to work with into a world that he adores. Nothing has been confirmed yet, but with so many years of work and various beloved roles under his belt, the star’s list of contacts is rich with both actors and writers who would love to be a part of Firefly in some way.
“I’ve been inviting a lot of my friends, a lot of people that I know who I’ve met throughout the years, who… ‘I’m a big fan of Firefly, by the way.’ They do that, and I say, ‘You want to come play? You want to come do something?’ There are writers who have said, ‘Hey man, if you’re bringing it back, I’ll do anything.’ I said, ‘Come on!’ It’s been a wonderful 25 years of nursing, incredible relationships with incredible people that I can’t wait to include in this journey.”
The Firefly animated continuation is in development. Stay tuned here at Collider for more on the series as work continues to bring back the sci-fi cult classic.
- Release Date
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2002 – 2003-00-00
- Network
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FOX
- Showrunner
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Joss Whedon
- Directors
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Allan Kroeker, David Solomon, James A. Contner, Marita Grabiak, Michael Grossman, Tim Minear, Vern Gillum
- Writers
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Cheryl Cain, Drew Z. Greenberg, Jane Espenson