21-Year-Old Cult Sci-Fi Movie Becomes a U.S. Streaming Hit (& It’s Getting a Prequel Series)

A sequel to a wrongly cancelled Sci-Fi TV show is rightly getting some love on streaming. It’s never fun when a good TV show gets cancelled too soon, but the science fiction space is littered with corpses of series that were killed off long before they should’ve been. From streaming series like The OA and 1899, to 2000s shows like Dollhouse and, going even further back, Farscape, there are plenty of shows that deserved more seasons than they were afforded by their network.

Of course, if we’re talking prematurely cancelled Sci-Fi shows, then there has to be a mention of Firefly. Joss Whedon’s space Western is the example of a show that was killed off way too early, largely thanks to Fox not knowing how to market it and airing episodes out of sequence. It lasted only one season, but that was enough for it to gain a cult following, who never gave up on the series. Eventually, that support led to 2005 movie Serenity, which was designed to wrap things up, and is now enjoying popularity on Prime Video in the United States, per Flix Patrol.

Serenity Was A Good Sci-Fi Sequel, But Can Firefly Do It Again?

Serenity was a rare thing: a second chance for a cancelled Sci-Fi series, and on the big screen at that. That it exists at all feels like a miracle, and what’s equally impressive is that it’s genuinely good. It doesn’t capture quite the same quality as the TV series, because part of its strength was the format and spending time with the crew on their adventures each episode. Nonetheless, it has some thrilling action sequences, carries the show’s trademark snappy dialogue and sharp humor, and provides a fitting sendoff to the main characters.

Firefly continued to live on in the form of comic books, but it’s now getting something even rarer than a sequel movie: a third chance. It was confirmed earlier this year that an animated Firefly show is in the works, with the surviving members of the original cast all returning to voice their characters.

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Crucially, it will be set between the events of the TV show and the movie, meaning that Serenity‘s ending will remain in place, at least for now. There’s no network attached yet to the series, so it’s not a guaranteed thing, but given the continued popularity of Firefly and Serenity, it’d seemingly be an easy win for whichever network or streamer picks it up. There is also no guarantee of quality, but with the passion of the cast involved, it’s happening for the right reasons.

This comes during what has been a recent boom period for small screen science fiction. While it’s always had its standout shows, the past few years have seen an increase in the number of prestige offerings in the genre, largely thanks to Apple TV. From For All Mankind to Silo to Severance, it’s led the way in bringing smart Sci-Fi stories to television. Firefly has its own part in the genre’s long legacy, of course, and as it continues to go from strength to strength, it’s only right that it get to play another part in the future.

Serenity is available to stream on Prime Video, while Firefly is on Hulu and Disney+.

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