Nathan Fillion has revealed that an animated Firefly series is in advanced development, confirming the news during a panel at Awesome Con alongside a reunion of the show’s original cast.
Almost the entire original ensemble is set to return, with Fillion, Alan Tudyk, Gina Torres, Jewel Staite, Morena Baccarin, Sean Maher, Summer Glau and Adam Baldwin all expected to reprise their respective roles.
The animated series is being developed through Fillion’s production company Collision33 in partnership with 20th Television Animation, which holds the rights to the sci-fi franchise.
Fox
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Marc Guggenheim and Tara Butters — the married writing-producing duo behind DC’s Legends of Tomorrow and Agent Carter respectively — are on board as showrunners, and a script is already done.
Animation studio ShadowMachine, which has Oscar and Emmy wins to its name, has already produced early concept art for the project. The fully assembled package is expected to be taken out to buyers shortly.
Story-wise, the series will slot into the gap between the original 2002 TV run and the 2005 feature film Serenity, meaning fans can expect something that feels properly canonical rather than a reimagining.
Fillion, who played the beloved Malcolm Reynolds in the original series, has been teasing the news all week via a viral social media campaign that sent fans into a collective spiral of speculation. Clearly, the gambit worked.
“The dedication of Firefly fans has kept this 25-year-old show relevant,” Fillion said in a statement. “Clearly, the return of Firefly is something the fans want. More importantly, it’s something they deserve.”
The ‘masterful’ show, which Empire Magazine said had been “cut down in its prime”, has a huge cult following, and goes some way towards resuscitating the hearts of noughties TV lovers after news broke that the Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot would not be moving forward at Hulu.
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No broadcaster or streaming home has been confirmed yet, but given the assembled talent and the feverish fan response already building online, it seems unlikely buyers will be hard to find.
Firefly originally aired its single, criminally-short season on Fox in 2002 before being cancelled — a decision that has haunted a generation of sci-fi fans ever since. The show’s cult following only grew in the years that followed, fuelled by DVD sales, streaming and the theatrical continuation in Serenity.
Firefly is available to stream on Disney+.
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