Seems after years of fanboy pleading, an off the cuff comment by former Firefly star Nathan Fillion might just lead to a revival of the short lived series.
When the news of Firefly coming back to cable was announced, Fillion told EW, “If I got $300 million from the California Lottery, the first thing I would do is buy the rights to Firefly, make it on my own, and distribute it on the Internet.”
Well, that’s all he needed to say. The movement went into immediate action with Fillion’s colleagues even getting in on the fun. From EW:
Jose Molina, a producer on Syfy’s Haven, former Castle producer and author of two Firefly episodes tweeted Friday regarding Fillion’s comment: “For what it’s worth, I’ve told him I’d drop what I was doing and follow.”
Then Jane Espenson, writer of a Firefly episode, a producer on Battlestar Galactica and co-creator of Warehouse 13, replied to Molina: “I’m there, if needed.”
I think web distribution is a far overlooked method of original content delivery.
The main reason why the series was cancelled was a lack of viewership. Even the drive from its fanbase got a feature film in place to tie up the loose ends of the plot. The passion of its fans to be celebrating the series nearly a decade after it ended show that it wasn’t the quality of the show that got it canned.
But sadly the property was just unable to make the money the network/studio wanted from it and the show was grounded.
It is very possible that if there is a ground swell of support for this, it might even happen. Firefly, for what it was worth, wasn’t that big on special effects. Lots of action in set peices and props, but aside from the space shots, there wasnt a huge budget there.
Continuing the series online could be paid for by exclusive advertisers, much like another Whedon Alum Felicia Day does with her Sprint/Microsoft sponsored webseries The Guild.
Personally I would love to see continued adventures of the surviving crew of the Serenity and see more of that world explored.
