Nathan Fillion has confirmed that a new animated spinoff to Firefly is currently in advanced development.
The actor has been teasing news related to the cult sci-fi show in recent weeksand earlier today (March 15), he made an appearance at Awesome Con in Washington D.C. and revealed that the new show is in the works.
At a live recording of his Once We Were Spacemen podcast, later confirmed by Deadline, it was announced that he would be reprising his role of Malcolm ‘Mal’ Reynolds in the new show, while Alan TudykGina Torres, Jewel Staite, Morena Baccarin, Sean Maher, Summer Glau and Adam Baldwin would all also be returning.
The space Western drama, which is set in a new star system in 2517 and follows the cast of the spaceship Serenity, ran on Fox for one season in 2002. It was cancelled after 11 of the 14 produced episodes aired, however, but it has developed a cult following over the years, in part thanks to its DVD release, and it won a Primetime Emmy in 2003.
Due to the success post-cancellation, creator Joss Whedon and Universal Pictures produced the 2005 movie Serenitywhich continued the story, while the Firefly franchise has gone on to include comics and tabletop role-playing games.
Fillion has said: “The dedication of Firefly fans has kept this 25-year-old show relevant. Clearly, the return of Firefly is something the fans want. More importantly, it’s something they deserve.”
Writing on Instagram, he added: “The word is out. To keep Firefly flying, we need a home. 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.”
The new animated show is being developed by Fillion’s own production company Collision33, in partnership with 20th Television Animation, who own the rights to the franchise. Marc Guggenheim (Legends Of Tomorrow, Arrow) and Tara Butters (Agent Carter, Reaper) will serve as showrunners. Whedon will not be involved, although Fillion has said he has given the show his blessing.
It will be set between the original 2002 series and Serenitystaying faithful to the events of both projects.
Back in 2020, it was reported that Fox was considering a revival of the show. Michael Thorn, then president of entertainment at the network, told The Wrap: “Any time we look at one of our classic titles, if there’s a way to reinvent it for today so it’s as resonant now as the original was, and is, to the fans, we’re wide open,” he said.
“I loved Fireflypersonally, and I watched every episode. I didn’t work on it, but I loved the show. 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.”
In less positive news, another Whedon product, Buffy The Vampire Slayerlearned this weekend that its reboot show Buffy: New Sunnydale will now not being going ahead at Hulu.