How could a Firefly reboot work in the modern-day, and what role would key figures like Joss Whedon and Nathan Fillion have to play in it? It’s been over 15 years since Serenity was released, and longer still since Firefly was on the air for the first time, but audiences are still eager for more of the show that Fox canceled after only a single season. That span of years has brought with it a lot of changes to the world and the lives of those involved in the show that creates challenges for returning to the series.
The original 14 episodes of Firefly all followed Captain Mal Reynolds and his crew aboard the smuggling ship Serenity as they worked to survive, help locals when they could, and avoid the tyrannical Alliance. After the cancellation of the original, the feature-length film Serenity was produced in an attempt to tie up loose ends. While it answered some questions, it drew mixed responses by killing two fan-favorite characters and, in some ways, opened up more questions about The Verse than it answered.
Since Serenity, devout Firefly fans have turned to graphic novels to continue the story of the universe they know and love. These comics have explored new stories and continued to be successful, proving there is an interest in the series returning to screens. Here are the biggest considerations and challenges that producers would have to face if they were to return to the series in some form or another.
Firefly's Reboot Should Be Live-Action, Not Animated
Particularly with the popularity of the graphic novels, suggestions have been raised that Firefly could return as an animated series rather than a live-action show. There are some good reasons to go with this option. It would mean that audiences could pick up the story learning what happened directly after the Serenity movie with the same cast voicing the characters without worrying about their current ages, and it would be easy to mimic the styles that people have already become familiar with in the graphic novels. Additionally, an increase in the success of animated series aimed at adults, like Harley Quinn, would make it easier to keep some of the more adult-themed original content without the same concern that the show might be viewed by kids.
However, it would be better to keep Firefly as a live-action series if it were to be rebooted. Keeping it as live-action will help the show maintain the feel of the original and help bring back old fans for the nostalgia value and be more accessible to new fans. This is also particularly feasible due to advances in visual effects for shows like The Mandalorian and Star Trek: Discovery since the original series aired. These advances would allow them to add more of the sci-fi style effects that they were able to provide in Serenity on a television series budget.
Firefly's Reboot Would Need A (Mostly) New Cast
While there is an understandable desire for the whole original crew to get back together, the cast has acknowledged time and time again that this is not feasible. Most of them are tied up with other long-running projects: Nathan Fillion, for example, picked up Castle after Firefly and has more recently been tied to The Rookie. There has been previous discussion about bringing back deceased characters in one form or another, but even that is complicated by Ron Glass’ (Shepherd Book) unfortunate passing in 2016.
While rumors creep up of plans to start the show over with a new cast playing the same crew members, this move would make it hard for the show to succeed as it would be difficult for new actors to live up to the vision in long-time viewers minds for how those characters should be portrayed. While actors have wavered over the years about whether they would even want to reprise their roles long-term, cameos or briefer recurring roles seem to be on the cards and would tie in well. However, at its core, the show would need to have a brand new main cast made up of fresh faces in new roles, serving as a sort of spinoff to the original Firefly.
When Firefly's Reboot Should Be Set In The Timeline
One of the biggest challenges created by the time that has passed since the original series ended has been that very passage of time itself. While one impulse might be for a revival series to pick up directly where Serenity left off, the world around the franchise has kept moving. Whether there was an ability to get the whole original cast back, or just some of them were able to appear in cameo roles, the storyline would need to account for the better part of two decades of aging on the part of the actors, or implement uncanny CGI to age them down.
Additionally, the existence of extensive canonical Firefly graphic novels written in those intervening years poses their own problem. To pick up a new Firefly series at the end of Serenity would require writing those graphic novels out of official canon and lose storylines that a smaller audience has already accepted. Writers would need to set the new series 15-20 years after the end of Serenity while following a new crew so that those graphic novels can remain canon while not being essential reading for the show.
What Does Serenity's Ending Mean For The Firefly Reboot's Story?
The events of Serenity centered on the story behind the Reavers: a group of crazed cannibalistic humans that live on the outer edge of the Verse and whose existence was denied by the Alliance government. The existence of Reavers was mentioned several times throughout Firefly, but it was only in Serenity that viewers got the full story. The movie concluded with Mal broadcasting a signal to the solar system revealing that the Alliance were actually secretly behind the creation of the Reavers. The defeated Operative announced that this would have weakened the Alliance government’s hold on power.
Given that so much of the original Firefly series centered on Mal and the inhabitants of the Outer Rim trying to avoid the oppressive control of the Alliance, it would be crucial for the new series to explore the ramifications of this broadcast. This could either take the form of the Alliance being a shadow of its former self, in which case the series would need a new antagonist group to avoid. Or it could have reformed in a way reminiscent of The First Order as a rebirth of the Empire in the Star Wars franchise.
A Modern Firefly Reboot Could Help Fix Past Mistakes
There are two big concerns from the original world-building of Firefly that would need to be addressed for an audience in the 2020s. First: a central struggle in the narrative was Mal and Zoe’s history as Browncoats in the Unification War, fighting for independence against the Alliance. Much of the discussion surrounding the war as it was presented was analogous to arguments in favor of the Confederacy in the American Civil War, arguing for “states’ rights” while avoiding discussions of slavery. By removing issues of slavery in Firefly, Whedon made the Browncoat characters' role in the Unification War read as honorable, but as time had moved on, it was hard not to see the group as representing Confederacy Apologism. A return to this world would need to reexamine how some of this was originally presented and be cautious about what groups it might be unconsciously emboldening.
Second: the premise for The Verse was that in the 26th-century humanity inhabits a new solar system, and its culture was defined by the two largest Earth-That-Was cultures that lead to the new colonization–Americans and Chinese. However, limited aspects of Chinese culture were represented, and it was primarily visible in the Chinese swear words that people use (a trick employed to avoid having to censor words for English-speaking audiences). More importantly, no Chinese characters appeared throughout Firefly. A new series would be an opportunity to explain their absence from the planets see on the Outer Rim and/or correct this issue of representation by including them going forward.
A Firefly Reboot Would Need To Happen Without Joss Whedon
In 2020 and 2021, rumors about Joss Whedon’s behavior on sets came to a head with some explosive revelations from actors who have worked with him. Most notably were reports from Ray Fisher, working on Justice League, and Charisma Carpenter, speaking up about her time on Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel. These allegations stirred controversy around Whedon and were largely corroborated by others on those sets, with many people coming out in support of Carpenter.
Whedon stepped away from The Nevers in the fall of 2020 citing the strain the work had put on him, but some have theorized that he knew the revelations were coming and did not want them to taint the series. Whedon has become a toxic presence, and the news of his longstanding behavior has led some audiences to boycott his work. Despite Whedon being the creator and having helmed the filming of the first half of Season 1, HBO largely removed his name from the project, muddying the nature of Whedon's involvement with The Nevers. Any return to Firefly would need to be done without Whedon’s presence. However, as the original creator, he would still get credit and royalties for the use of his intellectual property, and that alone might be enough to stop many people from watching the show.
Both Firefly and Serenity left a lot of unanswered questions that a new series could address. It also left a lot of challenges to overcome. Some of those challenges could easily be defeated with clever writing and good casting. However, some are larger issues that are tied inextricably to the work. This leaves the question: is a faithful and forward-looking return to the series even feasible today?