The Real Reason We Never Got A Firefly Revival

there are few single season shows out there in the verse that have quite the same cult following as Firefly but will the space Western ever get the Revival it deserves well we hate to damage your calm but the chances don't exactly look good the cancellation of firefly was tragic when Fox began airing episodes of what was Jos weeden's latest series they did so completely out of order how you do that with only 14 episodes at your disposal seems beyond comprehension and and instead of kicking off Firefly with the very necessary pilot episode titled Serenity Fox started with the second episode called the train job additionally objects in Space the last produced episode of Firefly originally intended as a season 1 finale was aired just before the pilot and three episodes never aired during the original Fox run at all instead premiering in the United Kingdom the following summer eventually the Science Channel aired all 14 episodes in order though though Firefly had been off the air for nearly a decade by then so what took Firefly down though the show was mostly well received by critics High Praise sadly wasn't enough to keep the serenity afloat aside from outof Order episodes and Fox's apparently unrealistic expectations the real reason Firefly was canceled was low ratings so rather than continue to try and build a bigger audience over time box asked the show before it even got off the ground airing on Friday nights a time slot some times referred to as the Friday night death slot didn't help either which set the series up to fail that along with poor marketing that failed to capture the rebel Spirit of the show contributed harshly to the untimely Fade to Black of firefly no power in the verse can stop me Firefly fans dubbed brown coats after the band of rebels that some of the main characters once belong to are unlike any other it's because of their love for the series and its characters that the franchise has been able to continue in any capacity for over 20 years after it failed on Fox many viewers flocked to DVD racks and online Market places to express their continued interest in the show miraculously Firefly DVD pre-sales sold out on Amazon within 24 hours fans continued to campaign for Fox to bring Firefly back for another season sending in letters emails and petitions to get their favorite show back on the air while Fox didn't budge others noticed their efforts recognizing the fans dedication to the story Universal Pictures acquired the film rights and green lit a feature set to bring back the Firefly cast and crew citing the show's impressive DVD sales as enough potential to build something bigger in 2006 a documentary about fan involvement in Firefly and continuing the story called done the impossible the fan tale of firefly and serenity was released as a love letter of sorts to the show and its audience Adam Baldwin who played Jane cob one of the serenity 's resident mercenaries narrated the film while juel State who played Serenity engineer Kaylee fry provided some voiceover work ever since Firefly fans have continued to show up and support their show constantly hoping to fund or inspire a Revival of some sort when shows are canceled usually that's it occasionally fans are able to save shows for a time or they're revived later on down the road but following those impressive DVD sales and momentous fan outcry Firefly returned once again to the screen the big one this time in 2005 just a few years after Fox's untimely cancellation Universal Pictures released the Sci-Fi Action feature Serenity a continuation film set to conclude the series mythology and satisfy those outspoken fans who hoped for more though Jos Weeden originally planned a multi-season series Serenity allowed Weeden and his cast to revisit the verse yet again even if for a final time the Epic space Western genre mashup up of the series translated masterfully to the big screen not only are the visuals a massive upgrade from the television show but the increased budget of a feature film allowed Weeden to tell a bigger and more mythology heavy story than could have been told on the small screen well at least not at the time though it was released about 2 years after the series ended the events of Serenity pick up only 2 months after the impromptu series finale of firefly continuing the alliance's pursuit of River Tam played by summer glow and the rest of the crew after DVD sales for Firefly skyrocketed it seemed like a good idea to continue the short-lived series as a feature film for many there was even hope for a continuing Serenity franchise with multiple cinematic installments rumors circulated about a potential sequel but nothing ever came of it after hoping DVD sales for the feature may do for the film what they did for the television series a Serenity sequel faded out of Universal's preview on the since decommissioned Jos themed Weeden esque website weed didn't told fans there's no sequel no secret project regarding Serenity or some such I'm not even sure how anyone thought there was talk there with that the hopes of many were dashed but in 2015 Weeden was singing a slightly different tune when talking with Empire about the potential future of the franchise he went on to remark that although he didn't foresee a theatrical sequel he still hoped for a television Revival of firefly one day reiterating his love for the IP he told the outlet as long as I was able to service the characters with integrity and had enough money so that I wasn't hampered then I would love to return Serenity to TV there could be a series there could be a minseries there could be all sorts of things I'm not ruling anything out although a sequel to Serenity wasn't likely to happen some sort of liveaction continuation of firefly seemed possible somewhere down the line could be bumpy always is the continued questions of how one can or should divorce the Creator from the creation are tough to to answer for some separating the art from the artist especially in a television context in which hundreds of artists are involved is relatively easy for others it's nearly impossible wherever you fall on that Spectrum there's no denying that the more recent controversies surrounding Jos Weeden made it increasingly difficult for Firefly to return ever since vulture published a 2022 article that produced several allegations from cast and crew members of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Angel dollhouse and Justice League the Firefly creator has been keeping a much lower profile while Weeden wasn't the only filmmaker associated with firefly he is the creator of the franchise and responsible for writing several episodes as well as the film which he also directed but some are still willing to work with Weeden again in the future in an interview on the inside of you podcast Nathan fillian noted that it would be heartbreaking if Firefly continued without its creator regarding the previously mentioned allegations billian said that was not my experience with that man I would work with Jos again in a second wherever the truth about Weeden lies he has nothing coming down the Hollywood pipeline making the chances of any more unscreen Firefly Adventures Slimmer but despite weeden's troubles many of the cast members want to continue on depending on who you ask you may get different answers regarding the likelihood of more Firefly both Nathan fillian and Alan tudk who played pilot Hoban was wasburn have starkly different ideas on a Revival according to Filan who has said his time on Firefly was the best job he ever had there's no real need for any more adventures in a 2015 interview with Esquire he admitted we were able to have a nice kind of final goodbye we had closure which is more than a lot of people with canceled shows can say nevertheless in his 2022 interview with Michael rosenbom fillian revealed that he' jump at the chance to play M Reynolds once more on the flip side Alan tudk adamantly wants a firefly reboot but with a Twist tudk told Esquire that quote it's going to take a little time saying that he likes the idea of it in another 10 years or so he believes that Clint Eastwood's Western epic Unforgiven is the best model to follow just with dillian's character at the center so you going to ride shotgun with me help me fly that's the plan conversely actress Summer glow commented that she was torn on a Revival since Firefly is an Underdog Story at heart she told the convention junkies I think that part of the magic about Firefly is that it didn't last and that all of the fans are the ones keeping it alive though glow said she wouldn't be able to stay away from a reboot she isn't sure if the magic could be recaptured you've lost her lad be gracious of course not every Firefly star actively wants to come back for a full-on Revival series marinaa bararan who played Serenity tenant and high society sex worker inara sah has expressed that she's not overly interested in returning to play the character again in the future on a 2023 episode of inside of view she told Michael Rosa bomb I like laying some things to rest we should do a reunion or we should do like a podcast or talk or like a one-off like friends did that'd be fun right I don't really need to resuscitate the show for me bearan was speaking of friends the reunion in which the original cast reunited on the original set to reminisce on their time with the series while many had hoped for a narrative continuation of friends the cast reunion special is as close as we're likely to get with that in mind a firefly reunion special might be the most practical way to bring bring the Beloved cast back together in the late 2010s Fox thought about pursuing a firefly Revival it turns out Fox Exact Michael Thorne is a big fan of the series and like many other fans wants a Revival during that time Fox was Reviving previous hits such as 24 and the ax files for limited runs and the network reportedly looked at bringing back the space Western 2 Thorne told the rap in 2020 just after Disney purchased 20th Century Fox it had come up before but we had the Orville on the air and it didn't make sense for us to have as a broadcast network who is very targeted to have two space franchises on our air of course the Orval soon moved to Hulu which opened the door for a firefly return but Fox doesn't seem to have pursued it any further while dubiously sourced clickbaity rumors of an in development pg-rated Firefly reboot for Disney plus with a new cast and no involvement from Jos Weeden elicited an all two predictable fan outrage no new information rumored or otherwise has emerged regarding the matter since roughly 2021 considering that Disney plus already has a popular space western series you might have heard of called the Mandalorian the mouse doesn't seem to have an immediate demand for more Firefly you're going to make do with what you got tying into the release of Serenity Darkhorse Comics published a many series titled Serenity those Left Behind meant to fill in the gaps between the series and the feature film this eventually led to two more limited comic series before catching up with the film's timeline leaves on the wind was released in 2014 and was was followed by no power in the verse in 2016 officially ending darkhorse's comic book tenure with the franchise since Jos Weeden and Company penned Dark Horses Serenity Tales they're considered more or less Canon filling in gaps from the show's run additionally an ongoing series of firefly novels have been published by Titan books with each story interweaving between the show's 14 episodes then in 2018 boom Studios acquired the comic book rights and began releasing stories in the verse with their Firefly comic book Rebrand with input from Jos Weeden writer Greg pck crafted new adventures for the serenity crew soon a sequel series titled allnew Firefly was launched ending in December 22 with a One-Shot titled Big Damn finale while it's unclear if we'll ever get a proper Firefly Revival the comics are the truest continuation of the short-lived space Western while we hope that some other project like a movie or an audio drama could be produced somewhere down the line One Thing Remains Ever Clear Firefly may be gone but no one can take the sky [Music] away

Channel: Looper

Views: 281,735

Keywords: looper, firefly, scifi, series, joss whedon

Id: s-BWVWWmxJk

Length: 12min 10sec (730 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 20 2023