Nathan Fillion’s big Firefly tease has been revealed as a new animated series set between the original live-action TV show and the Serenity movie — but there’s a catch.
Fillion and members of the original cast announced the series during a panel at Awesome Con in Washington D.C., where concept art of the lineup was also shown. Gina Torres, Jewel Staite, Morena Baccarin, Sean Maher, Summer Glau, and Adam Baldwin will reprise their roles. Ron Glass, who played the Shepherd Book, died in 2016 aged 71.
While a showrunning team has been assembled and a script has been completed, the Firefly animated series isn’t a done deal yet. It will be taken out to buyers in a bid to find a streaming home, with Firefly creator Joss Whedon not involved.
Fillion, who plays Captain Mal Reynolds in Firefly, had hyped up fans with a number of social media posts that sparked hope of a series return over 20 years after it was canceled. Now the word is out there, Fillion took to social media again to say “we’re going to try to bring back Firefly.” He added that he has Joss Whedon’s “blessing,” and rights holders 20th Century Studios / Disney “got excited” and said “yes.” Fillion has two showrunners in place: married writing-producing team Marc Guggenheim (DC’s Arrow, Flash) and Tara Butters (Agent Carter, Dollhouse), who met through Firefly. ShadowMachine is in place as animation studio.
And in the social media post we get a glimpse at the script of this pilot episode, titled ‘Athenia’ and labelled ‘Episode #1, 201,’ which suggests this animated series is, essentially, Season 2 of Firefly. The idea is the proposed series is set in the timeline between the original 2002 television run and its 2005 feature film continuation, Serenity, expanding the universe while preserving continuity with the established lore. The animated format “provides an opportunity to revisit the franchise’s original ensemble dynamics while allowing for expanded storytelling within the established timeline,” a note to press reads.
The post acts as a call to arms, a mobilization of the Firefly community to help convince would-be buyers that this animated series is worth investing in. Fillion ends the video by saying he’s going out to pitch the show, and the other cast members wish him luck.
“The word is out. To keep Firefly flying, we need a home,” Fillion posted. “And for that, we need you. Like this post, comment on this post, repost this post. Tag a friend, tag an enemy, even tag a Reaver. Give us some ‘quantifiable analytics’ that we can use to convince folks that this is something people want.”
Firefly premiered on Fox in September 2002 and ran for just 11 of its 14 episodes before being cancelled. The series follows the crew of the spaceship known as Serenity, helmed by Fillion’s Mal Reynolds, in the year 2517, and ended up becoming a cult classic once it made its way to DVD.
Firefly photo credit: Once We Were Spacemen.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
