The awesome Firefly will be back in animated form
Firefly is set to fly again! Probably. At least, all signs are pointing vaguely at yes. If you’re like me, your Instagram feed has featured a lot of clips with Nathan Fillion visiting the Firefly cast, all of them nodding at each other and hinting cryptically at a return. Now it’s official that some stuff is happening.
They could have done a live action version and had them as they are now, but, (SPOILER FOR SERENITY INCOMING) given that Alan Tudyck was involved, it always seemed likely to be animated and would cover the period pre-Serenity. The only other options with him involved would be to de-age them for the whole show or somehow bring Wash back via scifi magic like cloning or he has a twin. None of which would be ideal.
So if the original crew is back, minus Shepherd (probably, RIP Ron Glass), then that suggested some kind of anime set between the show and the film. Well, Fillion has finally announced that the crew is getting back together, it is animated, and it is that time period – but there is a caveat.
What do we know about the Firefly animated show so far?
It is important to note that this isn’t a done deal. (Although, I think it pretty much is.)
Given all the videos, the cast is clearly up for it. Which, let’s face it, is one of the largest hurdles. Plus, there is already a fanbase of incredibly cool people. From the reveal clip and what I have read elsewhere, we now know a few things about the Firefly animated show.
Joss Whedon is out, for obvious reasons, but has given his blessing. There is already a script written called ‘Athenia’ which is listed as episode ‘201’. So this will presumably just be Firefly carrying on with season 2.
The showrunners will be married writing-producing team Marc Guggenheim (Arrow, Flash) and Tara Butters (Dollhouse, Agent Carter). They seem pretty damned talented.
ShadowMachine is the animation studio involved. They have previously won an Oscar, BAFTA, Annie, and Golden Globe for Guillermo del Toro’s Pinnochio, so they will probably do a decent job.
And what is the caveat? It needs your support to get made
This is not a done deal. At the end of the clip, Fillion says he still needs to pitch the show and find a streamer to call it home. He calls on the Firefly community to rally round and generally express interest.
Fans like myself were pretty vocal when it was initially cancelled. Most understood the finances of it, a bit, kind of, but not quite. It was expensive and wasn’t an immediate hit, but I still think it could have worked. It was such a suberb world and the characters were definition of loveable rogues. Anyway, that’s in the past.
We can’t have the live action version, but we can have this. Animation is incredible these days, look at the Spiderverse movies or Arcane, so this could be the best we are going to get. And I’m all for it. So go online and make some noise. Any major streamer will do.
If you somehow stumbled here and haven’t seen Firefly, you can now watch it in 4K here. (Affiliate)
If you want to watch the announcement, you can just go on Instagram and search for Nathan Fillion. (I couldn’t find a way to link to it.)
Shiny!