Firefly’s (maybe, probably) on the way back. After a few days of rumours and counter-rumours, the truth was revealed on Sunday 15 March – and Alasdair Stuart assesses what we’ve learned:

After a series of Instagram posts visiting the surviving cast members, Nathan Fillion made the announcement. It happened at a live taping of his Once We Were Spacemen podcast alongside Alan Tudyk, Gina Torres, Jewel Staite, Morena Baccarin, Sean Maher and Summer Glau and on his Instagram. Here’s what we know.

  • Joss Whedon isn’t involved, but Fillion has his ‘blessing’.
  • Fillion is working with 20th Television Animation, who hold the rights to the franchise and is doing so through Collision33, his production company.
  • Marc Guggenheim and Tara Butters are Showrunners. Guggenheim was a major part of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow and Arrow while Butters was a major part of Agent Carter and Reaper. That’s a serious foundation of talent, and one that sits solidly in the heartfelt/weird/SO weird axis that Firefly’s best hours are located in. They also apparently met, fell in love and married while working on Firefly and regardless of the very complicated feelings some folks (including me) have about the show, that’s adorable.
  • A script’s been completed, there’s concept art from Oscar and Emmy-award winning animation studio ShadowMachine.
  • The show is expected to be put in front of buyers shortly.

An animated series makes a huge amount of sense. Firefly is 25 which both makes some form of revival timely and marketable. Setting it between Firefly and Serenity, as has been confirmed, also cleverly sidesteps two issues. The first being how do you explore what happened next? The second being Wash being stabbed through the chest with a tree trunk sized spear in Serenity. The third, bonus solution being technically the show can run as long as you want. Time’s elastic in those little pockets between continuity. Just ask Doctor Who or literally any other major franchise. Plus, everyone’s 25 years older, some folks are largely or semi-retired and some (well, two) are starring in major police procedurals and in one case occasionally being annoyed by how nice Superman is. Animation and voiceover are very demanding, but it’s ‘come into the studio or we’ll sort you out with a home rig’ demanding, not ‘We live in Vancouver for the next eight months’ demanding.

But there are four issues to address. The most obvious, and saddest, is that Ron Glass passed a few years back. Shepherd Book was such a wonderful, integral part of the cast. An animated series gives them the opportunity to both honour Ron Glass and re-cast the role. Given Book’s storied past, a member of one of his flocks, a relative or a child would all make various levels of sense.

But the show has other problems as well, and the biggest is that Firefly as a show is from a time where things that seem logical, and kind, now, just didn’t happen. Inara, a professional sex worker supposedly held in high esteem in this society, is demeaned by everyone especially Mal, who claims to be her friend. Several characters initially planned as Asian were recast due to Whedon’s combination of ‘blind casting’ and wanting to work with folks he had a previous relationship with. The show can be read, rightly, as ‘plucky confederates in space’. There is, for a show about a world where Asian culture has become a foundational note for all of society, an eye wateringly small amount of persons of colour in major roles.  Nothing in the pitch Fillion’s presented so far seems aware of these issues let alone addressing them. That may present as churlish, but this is a massively high-profile project that needs to be aware of its time and how it has to change. Other choices made seem to suggest that they have very little awareness of that.

Which brings us to Jayne. Adam Baldwin, who played Jayne, has spent a lot of that time veering hard to the right. Baldwin has spoken out in defence of the Confederate flag, against gay marriage, against feminism, is a vaccine sceptic and was a spearhead of the Gamergate movement that’s been directly tied to harassment, doxing and is one of the foundations of a lot of the truly rancid things that have been happening in pop culture for the last decade. Baldwin has, provably, set his followers on people in harassment campaigns. There are people in therapy because of his actions. Baldwin is apparently a delight on set. Baldwin on social media is a monster.  The two defences I’ve seen raised are how pleasant he was on set and the importance of separating art from artist. The first is understandable. The second is asking for tolerance and empathy for a bully from the people he bullied.

Finally, there’s Whedon. The man who once described himself as being a ‘woke bae’, gave a car crash interview a few years ago that yanked the mask off. Abuse, harassment, bullying, it all came out, and the cast of Buffy especially have now all but confirmed all of this. Firefly is, for better or for worse, one of Whedon’s flagship properties. I’m honestly pleasantly surprised he’s together enough to not try and use this as his redemption tour, but even then I pray the cast have media training ready. Every third question is going to be ‘Why isn’t Joss back?’ and every tenth question is going to be ‘Why is Baldwin back but Joss isn’t?’

As it stands, right now, the show isn’t a go. In Fillion’s most recent Instagram post he rolls out everything they need, and it comes down to attention and fan response which they certainly seem to be getting. I like their chances, especially given how analogous this seems to Critical Role’s initial plans for their animated series. That was pitched, turned down, crowdfunded to an extent the audience was undeniable and promptly picked up by Amazon. Fan support means almost everything, and I wouldn’t bet against them. Being as cute as the show sometimes managed to be, it’s how you keep flying. But who you’re flying with, and why are questions no one can outrun forever. Not even the Serenity.

Firefly is, for reasons that are now clear, charting on most streaming services right now and is available on disc. As is the sequel movie, Serenity.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DV6Js56jT3F/?hl=en

 

Posted on 0 By PS News Posted in News Tagged #
PS's avatar

PS

Leave a comment