Browncoats unite: Firefly is back! But did we ever really lose it?

Even the Reavers (not to mention the Fox television network) failed to take the sky from the rogue crew aboard a Firefly-class spaceship called the Serenity. Sure, they cancelled the beloved space western/comedy after a single 14-episode season back in 2002, in which they played episodes out of order and committed other shenanigans with the soon-to-be cult favorite. But they didn’t stop fans from wanting more.

Fans got more, in the form of the 2005 television movie Serenity, which caught us up with the characters in a whole new adventure, with a tragic ending that some fans (such as this writer) still aren’t over. Fans loved it so much though that they voted it the best science fiction film of all time in a poll run by SFX magazine.

One movie wasn’t enough, though. A fan-led campaign raised over a million dollars to help star Nathan Fillion buy the rights to the show from Fox/20th television. Unfortunately, that campaign ultimately failed to reach the $300 million goal, but the characters were brought back to life by Dark Horse Comics in book form. There were Firefly podcasts, Comic-Con panels, and an anniversary special. Fans never forgot, and never gave up hope.

Now that faith has paid off. After two weeks of short IG reels showing Fillion knocking on the doors of various cast members and delivering the message “it’s time” to each, he announced at AwesomeCon in Washington DC, and on Instagram that Firefly is returning as an animated series with all surviving cast members on board to voice their characters.

“As of this moment the word is out. We are going to try to bring back Firefly.” Fillion said. And this time we’re going to animate it. “

Fillion then says, “now, to do this we would need Joss’ blessing … I got it,” said Fillion. He and the other cast members say that the rights would also need to be obtained from 20th Century Fox/Disney. “They got excited. They said yes,” said Fillion, adding that the team already has secured the help of animation firm ShadowMachine.

He also said the script has already been written, and that writer-producers Tara Butters (Agent Carter, Dollhouse) and Marc Guggenheim (Arrow, Flash) are set to serve as showrunners. The two are married, and met via their love of the show.

“The last piece we need is a home, and for that we need you,” said Fillion, urging Instagram users to engage with the post in order to create a buzz around the campaign to revive the show. “I’m asking you to do what you’ve always done — keep Firefly flying,” he said.

Whatever he said, it worked. Over a million people have liked the IG post since it was released a day ago.

The original characters returning to the show include Captain Mal Reynolds (Fillion), Zoë Washburne (Gina Torres), Inara Serra (Morena Baccarin), Dr. Simon Tam (Sean Maher), River Tam (Summer Glau), Kaylee Frye (Jewel Staite) and Jayne Cobb (Adam Baldwin), and apparently, Alan Tudyk as Hoban “Wash” Washburne, who [spoiler alert] is not currently alive in the show’s canon, will be part of the new show’s cast. Ron Glass, who played Derrial “Shepherd” Book passed away in 2016. The show’s creator, the problematic Joss Whedon, will not be involved.

It looks like everything is in place for the show’s return as long as enough fans clamor for it. At that point, we should know more about the story and a production/release timeline. But it will happen, someday. As the theme song to the show mentioned in the first paragraph of this article says, “they can’t take the sky from me.”