After Firefly, These 5 Classic Sci-Fi Shows Definitely Need an Animated Revival

Joss Whedon’s space western Firefly suffered a notoriously premature cancellation by Fox in 2002 after airing just eleven episodes, leaving an intensely devoted fanbase demanding closure. Universal Pictures eventually stepped in to finance the 2005 theatrical feature Serenity, providing a conclusion to the smuggling adventures of Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) and his crew. Despite that cinematic finale, Fillion officially confirmed that a Firefly animated series is currently in development under the working title Firefly: Still Flying, with the original cast returning to voice their characters. The production is being handled by ShadowMachine, the acclaimed animation studio behind Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, while television veterans Marc Guggenheim and Tara Butters serve as showrunners. Set between the original television run and the events of the feature film, Firefly: Still Flying explores the untold narrative gap of the beloved franchise.

The return of Firefly in animation makes sense. Producing high-concept science fiction in live-action requires a massive budget for practical sets and digital effects, which cost a fraction in animation. Plus, live-action has to take into account aging actors and even the tragic passing of Ron Glass, part of the core cast of Firefly. In addition, animation grants creators the flexibility to design massive extraterrestrial worlds and bizarre technological concepts without worrying about how to make them work in live-action. So, by embracing a similar approach, networks hold the power to resurrect numerous sci-fi classics beginning for a revival.

5) Terra Nova

Fox’s 2011 ambitious sci-fi drama Terra Nova, executive produced by Steven Spielberg, followed a family transported 85 million years into the past to a Cretaceous parallel Earth, with the mission of forming a new human colony. To bring the story to life, Terra Nova built massive practical sets in Queensland, Australia, while also developing expensive CGI dinosaurs to interact with the cast. Unsurprisingly, Terra Nova became one of the most expensive television shows ever produced at the time, leading to its cancellation after just 13 episodes. By transitioning to animation, Terra Nova creators could fully render the prehistoric ecosystem and the hostile Sixer faction without the crippling constraints of a live-action visual effects budget. An animated continuation would also allow writers to resolve the massive cliffhanger of the first season, specifically the mystery of the 18th-century ship discovered in the Badlands.

4) Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Airing on Fox from 2008 to 2009, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles perfectly expanded the mythology of James Cameron’s cinematic universe. Showrunner Josh Friedman focused on the psychological toll of changing the future, anchoring the narrative on Sarah Connor (Lena Headey), her son John (Thomas Dekker), and the reprogrammed Terminator Cameron (Summer Glau) as they dealt with a fracturing timeline filled with AI threats. The series infamously concluded its second season on a staggering cliffhanger, stranding John in a post-Judgment Day future where his own resistance allies, including his father Kyle Reese (Jonathan Jackson) and uncle Derek Reese (Brian Austin Green), have no idea who he is. An animated revival could effortlessly depict the dystopian future war, a setting too expensive for network television to portray consistently week-to-week. In addition, shifting to animation could bring back the original actors to voice their characters, bypassing the issue of aging, and finally give fans the definitive conclusion to the Connor family’s complex timeline.

3) Dark Angel

Co-created by James Cameron and Charles H. Eglee, Dark Angel launched in 2000 as a stylized cyberpunk vehicle that propelled Jessica Alba to stardom. Set in a dystopian Seattle, the series followed Max Guevara (Alba), a genetically enhanced super-soldier on the run from the government agency Manticore, alongside cyber-journalist Logan Cale (Michael Weatherly). Despite strong initial ratings and an incredibly expensive pilot movie, rising production costs led Fox to cancel the series in 2002 after its second season. The finale left the franchise on a massive cliffhanger, with Max and her fellow transgenic outcasts holed up in a ruined section of the city, surrounded by the United States military. Animation eliminates the constraints of capturing Alba and Weatherly’s live-action likenesses decades later while making the expensive martial arts choreography and superhuman abilities of the transgenics much more cost-effective to produce. Furthermore, a stylized animated series could lean heavily into the graphic-novel texture originally envisioned by Cameron.

2) Stargate

Across Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, and Stargate Universe, the military sci-fi franchise dominated television for over a decade before going dormant in 2011. Recently, fans suffered a massive blow when Amazon officially canceled its planned live-action Stargate revival. Despite franchise veteran Martin Gero developing a continuation for over two years alongside original producers, Amazon executives pulled the plug, reportedly fearing the series wouldn’t appeal to a broad audience beyond the existing dedicated fanbase. With the live-action reboot dead in the water, a canonical animated revival is the perfect pivot, as it could easily reunite original cast members for new adventures without the physical demands or massive budgets of live-action sci-fi stunts. An animated series could also rescue the crew of the starship Destiny, who were left in cryogenic stasis drifting between galaxies at the abrupt end of Stargate Universe. 

1) Farscape

Produced by The Jim Henson Company and created by Rockne S. O’Bannon, Farscape defied traditional sci-fi conventions with its bizarre alien designs and deeply emotional storytelling. Following human astronaut John Crichton (Ben Browder) and Peacekeeper Aeryn Sun (Claudia Black) aboard a living Leviathan spaceship, Farscape charmed fans for four seasons until it was canceled by the Sci-Fi Channel in 2002. Although The Peacekeeper Wars miniseries tied up the main storyline, the universe remains incredibly rich and expansive, with multiple possible directions for a revival. While the complex puppetry and prosthetics helped make Farscape charming, animation can capture the colorful aesthetic originally achieved with a smaller budget. An animated continuation could explore new territories in the Uncharted Territories while introducing a new generation to one of the most creative sci-fi ensembles of the early 2000s.

Which cancelled science fiction classic do you most want to see resurrected through the power of animation? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!

7 Frustrating Sci-Fi TV Cliffhangers That Will Never Be Resolved