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Nathan Fillion Developing Animated Firefly Revival With 20th TV Animation
Image Credit: 20th Century Studios
During a live recording of Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk’s Once We Were Spacemen podcast at Awesome Con in Washington, Fillion and the show’s original cast announced a new planned animated reboot of the cult sci-fi fan-favorite, Firefly. The upcoming series is currently in development at 20th Television Animation, per Deadline.
Fillion had recently been on a week-long social media campaign where he was meeting up with the show’s original cast member, teasing a new Firefly project. During the podcast recording, Fillion and Tudyk were joined by co-stars Gina Torres, Jewel Staite, Morena Baccarin, Sean Maher, and Summer Glau, all of whom are expected to reprise their roles in the upcoming animated version.
Adam Baldwin, who played Jayne Cobb in the original series, is also expected to lend his voice to the project. Baldwin also appeared in a video with Fillion teasing the new project.
Deadline reports that the animated project is being developed through Fillion’s production banner, Collision33 in partnership with 20th Television Animation, which holds the overall rights to the franchise.
Marc Guggenheim and Tara Butters are attached as showrunners for the project, and a script has reportedly been completed. Original series creator Joss Whedon won’t be involved in the animated revival. During the Awesome Con panel, Fillion reportedly confirmed that Whedon gave his blessing for the update.
Animated Firefly Revival Will Be Set Between the Show and Serenity
The upcoming series will be set within the timeline between the original series and its 2005 feature film continuation, Serenity, which expanded the universe while preserving the established lore. Early concept art has also been developed in collaboration with animation studio ShadowMachine, with a fully assembled package to be taken out to buyers soon.
Speaking to Deadline on the project, Fillion commented, “The dedication of Firefly fans has kept this 25-year-old show relevant. Clearly, the return of Firefly is something the fans want. More importantly, it’s something they deserve.” Fillion starred in the original show and movie as Malcolm “Mal” Reynolds.
Per the announcement on Once We Were Spacemen, “The word is out. To keep Firefly flying, we need a home. And for that, we need you. Like this post, comment on this post, repost this post. Tag a friend, tag an enemy, even tag a Reaver. Give us some “quantifiable analytics” that we can use to convince folks that this is something people want.”
The original show aired on Fox, but it achieved a significant cult status. It later spawned a big-budget movie sequel, which was released in theaters in 2005.
You can check out the video announcement on the animated reboot below:
