FIREFLY animated TV series in development

An animated TV series based on cult SF classic Firefly is in "advanced development," according to star Nathan Fillion. Most of the cast is expected to reprise their roles. Joss Whedon is not involved in the project but has given it his blessing.

The news was announced at a Firefly panel at WonderCon today. The animated series will be set between the events of Firefly (which aired one 14-episode season in 2002) and its movie sequel, Serenity (2005). Fillion (Mal), Alan Tudyk (Wash), Gina Torres (Zoe), Jewel Staite (Kaylee), Morena Baccarin (Inara), Sean Maher (Simon), Summer Glau (River) and Adam Baldwin (Jayne) will all reprise their roles from the TV series. It is unclear if a new actor will replace Ron Glass, who passed away in 2016, as Shepherd Book. Book departed the Serenity ship between the events of the series and movie, so he may not feature in the new project. The timeline was chosen to allow actors who characters died during the events of the movie to return.

The project is being developed by Fillion's company Collision33 with 20th Television Animation. Writer-producer team Marc Guggenheim (Legends of Tomorrow, Arrow) and Tara Butters (Agent Carter) will serve as showrunners, and have completed a first script. Animation studio ShadowMachine is producing concept art. Whedon, who created Firefly and wrote and directed multiple episodes (including the movie) but has since fallen from grace in Hollywood, will not have an involvement but Fillion has got his blessing to move forwards.

During an video addendum to the announcement, it appears that the project has the working title Firefly: Still Flyin' (or at least that's the logo), with a pilot episode entitled Athenia.

The news comes only a day after Sarah Michelle Gellar confirmed another attempted revival of a Joss Whedon property, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: New Sunnydale, was dropped after a pilot was shot for Hulu. That project may be remounted in a different format.

Cast of FIREFLY tease possible reunion

The cast of cult 2002 science fiction drama Firefly are teasing a reunion of the surviving characters in some form. Star Nathan Fillion has spent the last week or two "recruiting" fellow castmembers and telling them, "it's time."

The drip-feed of announcements started on 23 February when Fillion, who played Captain Malcolm Reynolds, met up with Gina Torres, who played his second-in-command Zoe Washburne. Two days later he recruited Morena Baccarin, who played Inara, and another two later, Sean Maher, who played Dr. Simon Tam. On 2 March Summer Glau, who played River Tam, joined the party. Then Jewel Staite, who played engineer Kaylee Frye, joined the team on 4 March. Adam Baldwin, who played Jayne Cobb, signed on on 8 March.

The only regulars not featured so far are Ron Glass as Shepherd Book, who sadly passed away in 2016, and Alan Tudyk, whose character Hoban "Wash" Washburne was killed in the 2005 spin-off movie Serenity. What will be interesting to see is if any of the extended cast of recurring characters, like Christina Hendricks' Saffron or Mark Sheppard's Badger, also join the project...whatever it is.

We do, however, have a date for an announcement: Sunday 15th March. That's when the cast will be attending a convention together, so they'll probably confirm what they're teasing then. Fillion has already confirmed it won't be "a podcast, convention or crossover."

Several possibilities then arise. The one all the fans want is a live-action reunion movie, special or even full TV series. A single movie or special is certainly possible, a full series less likely due to the actors' other commitments: Fillion on The Rookie, Baccarin on Sheriff County and Torres on Memory of a Killer makes long-term commitments doubtful. Even squeezing six episodes in during the off-season for those shows may be tricky. But a one-off is very doable, especially considering that Firefly is now effectively owned by Disney, who have deep pockets and might find a Firefly movie attractive, especially if it's relatively low-budget (by their standards, anyway).

Another possibility is animation. Animation has become a big deal, and requires much less of a time investment from the actors, who could fit it in around their existing schedules more easily. Animation would also allow them to set the show just after the movie or even between the series and movie, and bring back Tudyk (and, with another voice actor, Book).

A big question will be if creator-writer Joss Whedon will return to be involved with the project. Whedon has been persona non grata in Hollywood circles for several years due to revelations about his behaviour on the set of multiple projects, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the 1990s to his work on the movie Justice League in 2017. However, Adam Baldwin has also had some controversies and his return to the franchise is clearly possible, so perhaps Whedon's is as well. 

It is possible that one of the other writer-producers will be involved: Tim Minear arguably had as big a role on Firefly as Whedon and may be available to write or produce (he's currently a writer-producer on the 9-1-1 franchise).

We should find out what the fuss is about in six days' time.