The sci-fi Western Firefly might have only run for a single season, but the series has earned a passionate following over the years, with Fox’s president of entertainment Michael Thorn confirming that he would be open to reviving the property, so long as it was done for the appropriate reasons and with the right story to tell. Speculation about a possible revival grew in recent weeks when executive producer Tim Minear shared a photo from the last day of shooting on the series, which creator Joss Whedon then retweeted, sparking rumors that the pair was intentionally teasing fans that exciting news about the franchise could be over the horizon.
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“The macro answer is, 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,” Thorn confirmed with TheWrap. “I loved Firefly, personally, 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.”
The series took place in the 26th century, depicting the ways in which space travel and interplanetary colonization had reverted to a time resembling the Old West. Much like Whedon’s previous series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly embraced a quirky sense of humor and found unconventional ways to circumvent traditional genre tropes.
Despite the series only earning one season, enough fans showed their support of the franchise to earn the feature film Serenity in 2005. Minear went on to note that he had previously discussed a potential revival wit Whedon, though they doubted they’d be able to enlist the entire original cast.
“Joss did sort of revive it by making Serenity,” Minear admitted. “But we have talked about different permutations and how that might work. Do you take two of the characters and put them in a different place and sort of retell a new story with two old characters, with new characters?”
He added, “You’re not gonna get everybody back — unless you did something like a limited series, like they did for The X-Files. Then maybe you could get these people to come back. ‘Cause Nathan [Fillion] is a little busy doing The Rookie. But I also know, ’cause I just texted a little bit with Nathan over the weekend, when I posted those pictures from Firefly and he got very sentimental. Everyone who worked on that show dearly loves it and they all still talk to each other. I still see Alan [Tudyk] occasionally.”
A full-blown revival might be an impossibility, but the producer admitted, “I would love to see, like, an eight- or 10-episode limited adventure in that universe.”
Stay tuned for details on the potential future of Firefly.
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