Nathan Fillion Explains Why He Had No Interest Setting the Firefly Animated Series After Serenity

Thank you! That's what I came here looking for.

I almost replied with "What about Book?" and then was like oh shit wait he's old, is he still alive, lemme check, and goddammit.

While that is the answer, I can also see from a storyteller's perspective that they did Serenity to close out a bunch of multi-season ambitions they had for the show. If they set the animated series between the cancelled first season and the movie, they can expand upon and explore a lot of stuff they alluded to in the movie or flat-out didn't get to in the movie because of time limits. If they set the show after the movie, a lot of the open-ended plot threads have been tied off. They would get to play in the universe, but they would be starting from scratch, which is both a harder lift for the creatives behind it, and it may be selling the existing fanbase on a nostalgia premise that you know you're not going to deliver from the get-go because a lot of what could be done pre-movie is done by the movie.

They could set it later and just recast Alan Tudyk as Jayne with no explanation :)

I get it, but Mr. Tudyk is so good at other voices they could've just cast him as a new character to have him involved. Sadly, it being set "in between" has really lessened my interest in the project, even if I wasn't gung-ho about how Serenity ended things. I'm just tired of prequels, side-quels, and mid-quels.

I mean that’s not a bad answer, I do love me some Alan Tudyk. While I enjoyed a decent part of the show I do think it’s a shame Alan Tudyk wasn’t in more of Doom Patrol past the first season. he was so much fun in that role. Also Im sorry but they just couldn’t top that ending to season one…it was something else.

I didn't have to read the article. Because he wanted his friend in it. So obvious.

Or more accurately, he wants Wash in it. Alan Tudyk is an accomplished enough voice actor that he could play plenty of other non-Wash parts in an animated series if they wanted him back.

Alan Tudyk would have just been the beeps of the Serenity

It also shoved like 2 or 3 seasons worth of content in to an hour and a half, leaving a million loose ends. Also, yeah, without Alan coming back, i wouldn't have much hope for the show.

Hmmm let's see should we exclude this beloved character voiced by someone with extensive experience....

Really just the only answer needed too. We could all use more Alan Tudyk!

But with it being animated they could have just had him voice a different character

If that wasn't your first thought I'm not sure you watched Serenity

What do you mean “just”???

Alan "Leaf on the wind" Tudyk

Hey guys, how do Reavers clean their spears?

Objectively the correct answer too.

Is Book going to be recast or just missing?

But Tudyk is a phenomenal voice actor, he still could have been "in" the series (just not that character, yeah).

What I assumed without reading

I was going to say, if it's not a picture of him just pointing at Alan Tudyk, it's incorrect.

What? Walsh could have survived, been revived, after being impaled, left for dead for hours, by Reapers.

I did guess that. Thanks for confirming.

Makes sense. Thanks

Understandable. I also want more Alan Tudyk.

How do reavers clean their spears? Put them through the wash.

I'm glad he agrees with us, everyone wants the full crew back. It wouldn't be the same otherwise, they're practically a family.

Just have a new guy voiced by Alan Tudyk. It's animated for fucks sake. They're going to have to recast Shepard Book anyway. Why not have him be new character that bridges the two? Also, bounce Jane's maga ass.

I figured this was it. I'm just sorry we aren't going to be able to get Ron Glass.

Which is a great reason, I’m all for that reason

Good FU*KING reason.

Makes sense. You don't just kill off two fan favourite characters and then go "nah, f*** em" when doing a revival twenty years later. Also, the fact that the 'story' ended after the movie, too.

It's just him in that mustache that Zoey hated

And depending on how this season goes, we might also meet their third brother Spin.

Just copy what Beerfest did with Landfill.

No no no, folks are missing the most obvious answer. Does anybody actually want to see more Adam Baldwin? Of course not. Just recast Tudyk as Jayne. Don’t even bring it up on universe. Everyone wins.

Worked for City Slickers

You laugh but the A Better Tomorrow films basically did this with Chow Yun-Fat

*I'm a leaf on the wind!*

I took the day off of work to see Serenity in theatres. I actually saw it three times that day. Anyways, the first showing was at 1pm, I walk in the theatre and there is a lady wearing a Jayne Hat and shes leading everyone in the theatre singing the songs from the show 'Firefly'. Eventually the movie starts and its going fine. Then that happens. The Jayne Hat lady stands up and screams "WASH NO!!!" and then loudly ugly cries through the rest of the movie. When it showed the tombstones she got louder, when Zoe asks "wheres Wash" during the action scene she got louder. She cried through the entire credits.

The problem is that this locks them into future events that may just be less interesting than where the show could go in its own.  Honestly I wish they would just pull off the bandaid and say “this is a side sequel to firefly, it may not be a storyline that ends in serenity” I’d rather they be free to develop as they like. Rather than develop to get to the story established in serenity. 

I disagree. The story needs to move forward from that point in Serenity. We don’t need any in between stories that ignores the growth and the changes that occurred.

I’m really split down the middle about this.

So while I do get that sentiment and also turns out Joss Whedon is a pile of shit, but also this does undercut the subversive nature of Firefly a bit. Whedon wasn’t afraid to make big swings, subvert our expectations and kill characters we love, and that is part of what made Firefly so special. I’ve kinda moved on from him and this franchise anyway, but as sweet as this makes me feel, it does seem a bit off

In my head, Serenity never happened.

Fillion talked about that a bit, Tim and the other writers are too busy running other shows.

I love serenity but they can very easily call it noncanon to this animated show any time they want.

I kind of hope they just pretend the movie doesn't exist and continue the series as it should have gone.

I disagree. From the series, not the movie, there was a lot to explore. So many gaps left between series and movie. There’s still so much to say. I’m looking forward to it.

\>this also means no real character development. I don't know about that. Better Call Saul is an example of something that has enormous character development of a character we already know from a series. Not only does he have character development in the past but also future version of himself. I could see something like that working with a serenity animated show. Maybe we see flashes of a post-Wash Serenity crew. Down and out, and lost their way. Then the bulk of the show happens in mini-adventures we never got to see of the crew flying together. Within that we can see arcs that rise and fall and so long as they land more or less where we were at the start of Serenity then the possibilities are endless. Hell, look at the film Black Widow. The whole thing takes place after Civil War and before the rest. I'm not saying it's the best movie ever but it definitely tells a story between other moments we already know in the series. Actually a bunch of Marvel films do this. I think it's definitely doable. I'm more worried about the actual animation style if anything. Nothing from what I've seen from Shadow Machine has the style I would expect from a Firefly animation.

Yeah im for having Wash all the way, but id really like to have a fully lucid River Tam who's maybe quirky crazy and not crazy crazy.

Can just imagine how frustrated with him Mal would get, and in short order, lol. He's already a bit short-fused, and Harry's often child-like behaviour would likely drive him batty. XD Edit: I suppose there's a taste of what it might be like, as I just remembered Fillion voiced the octopus 42 in several episodes.

"Hey, has anyone seen River? She was acting strange and now I can't find her." "DUN DUN"

There is also so much that can happen in the time span between the series and the movie. We know where serenity picked up, but it's never been written as to how they got to that point. I know there are comics but I haven't read them in over 10 years. 

> A decent amount of people are aware that he was only killed off in the first place I think it had more to do with wanting to conclude Firefly, rather than line up future Firefly stories. If you listen to actors talking about their craft, some of them prefer to "kill" the role, rather than doing forgettable fan service.

And we were all better off for it—FWWM is one of Lynch’s greatest masterworks

I feel like if they have a successful season maybe in the future they can jump to the present.

"That's not why we want the show back .. right?" I think you can tell there's a bunch of poseurs in this thread from the people who are fixating on those elements. I suspect a good number of the commenters either never watched the show or second screened it and have forgotten what the show was actually like.

Disagree. If the show had originally gone 6 seasons and then a movie, I'd be more inclined to agree. This gives them a chance to tell all the stories that could have been told if the series hadn't been cancelled. I know some are going to balk if the show gets made, due to it being animated. Maybe I'll turn out to be wrong, but I think it's all a stroke of brilliance. I fully get Nathan's argument for placing in between the show and movie. They don't have to retcon anything. Having it animated makes sense for many reasons wrt just getting the show made, but it becomes a necessity in order to place it in that timeline due to how much the actors have aged(they still all look fantastic though). I'm not the hugest animation fan myself, but if done well, I can really enjoy it. Thought I was going to hate Lower Decks, but ended up loving it. Not to mention the live action crossover they did with SNW. That has me thinking. What if they did an episode of Firefly S2, where they're smuggling some kind of mcguffin thing that causes them all to trip out and hallucinate themselves as older versions in live action. Doesn't even have to be the whole episode. Obviously couldn't include Book, but it would work for everyone else. Would it be weird? Sure, but Idk, I think that would be hilarious.

I think most people do like it. It's just a little rough cause it was trying to do the wrap up for a tv series that mostly never aired while staying accessible to newbies. It's a fine ending to the firefly franchise. A lot of the dislike comes from the brainrotted fandom types who haven't been able to handle that their favourite blorbo from the show died for like 2 decades. You can even see it in this thread, people straight up asking to retcon it so that it retcons Washs death. Just loud people who didn't like a decision making themselves loud, because those of us who were fine with it obviously aren't going to be loud about a thing we're fine with.