A Firefly Animated Series

The sci-fi television series “Firefly” and its subsequent big screen continuation “Serenity” came out in 2002 and 2005 respectively.  That’s a very long time ago.  So, for that whole 20 plus years there have been rumors that circulated on-line that a sequel tv show or a movie would be greenlit.  And the fanbase of Firefly has been dying for such a sequel all these years.

And now their dreams are coming true.  Well, almost.  There won’t be a live-action tv show or movie.  There will be an animated movie with the original cast providing the voices of their characters.  And other than Ron Glass (who died a number of years ago) the whole cast is coming back.  But will it be any good?

Firefly and Serenity were the creation of Joss Whedon.  He invented them and breathed life into them.  Joss Whedon will not be writing or producing or directing this new movie.  He has been canceled in Hollywood for bad behavior.  Apparently, he hurt the feelings of some actresses before or during the #metoo witch hunts and has been consigned to a lower level of hell where powerful Hollywood men are sent to burn forever.  And without Whedon what are the chances that a new Firefly would be anything like the original?

Well, we’re about to find out.  That’s a slight exaggeration.  It’ll probably take a year or longer to produce this movie.  And whether it’s a tv miniseries or a motion picture you probably have to add a few months to fit it into the schedules for these kinds of things.  So, let’s say eighteen months.

Several years ago, I came to the conclusion that the best thing that could have happened to Firefly was exactly what did happen.  It only lasted a part of a season on tv and then had a motion picture to provide a satisfying climax to the characters and the story.  And the reason I felt that way was because Firefly appealed to me exactly because it went against the kind of female-centric left-leaning stuff that Joss Whedon typically produces.  Things like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Angel” and “Dollhouse” are what he makes.  And those shows are garbage from my perspective.  Firefly was from the opposite perspective.  It was the battle between the oligarchic Alliance which is a stand-in for today’s globalists and the Independents who are the freedom-loving commoners much like today’s Right.  But the danger as I see it is that eventually Whedon would have tweaked the characters and stories until they became “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”

And I still think that.  The two showrunners they’ve put in charge of this animated series are as thoroughly left-leaning and devoted to woke culture as anyone else around.  If anything, they’re worse than Whedon because at least he was talented.  They’re not.  So, I fully expect this new show will be pretty awful.

That being said I will watch it when it comes out.  Firefly was enormously entertaining while it lasted.  And it will be nostalgic to see the animated characters and hear the voices of the old crew.  But I would be shocked if it turned out to be good.

Disney Reviving Firefly? Possible? Preferable?

I stumbled across this video about whether Disney was planning to revive the Science Fiction series Firefly with the original cast.  Even after watching this discussion I wondered if this thing is just clickbait.

Sure, there are millions of Firefly fans who would love to see the show resurrected.  But how could it be done.  From what I’ve read Joss Whedon has been #MeToo’ed out of Hollywood or something and it’s been twenty years since the show went off the air and the lead is involved in a successful tv series.

But put that aside.  Suppose that  it could be done.  Suppose Nathan Fillion and the rest of the cast and Joss Whedon and his creative team from the original series could be reunited.  There remains the question of whether it should be done.  And by that I mean could Disney be trusted not to sabotage the whole thing by doing what they’ve done to Star Wars, The Avengers and every other intellectual property they buy?

I’ve got to be honest.  I think they’d ruin it.  Someway, somehow they’d corrupt the whole thing with the poison that they seem compulsively driven to inject in all their products.  They’d have Malcolm Reynolds discovering that he was a victim of whiteness and Zoe would have to become captain to atone for his sins.  And Jayne would end up transgendered and River would become a social justice warrior and Kaylee would have to go lesbian just to make the math work.

No, Disney should never try to bring Firefly back.  If Whedon were able to buy the intellectual property back and do it without interference there might be a chance of it turning out decent.  He could write some interesting stories for his world.  But Disney would murder it.  And that shouldn’t be done.  Let that special place exist in the past.  We can visit anytime we want with our dvds or streamed or on some network that loves good stories.  But don’t give it to the soulless hacks at Disney.  It deserves better than that.