TV fans are always going to take it hard when a good show gets cancelled, and it's something that unfortunately happens far too often. Those same fans will often send out a rallying cry to get a show back on the air, and that cry has been loudest over the years for the short-lived sci-fi actioner Firefly. Actor Nathan Fillion has heard the chants and rants for all of those years, and while he's still got a sympathetic ear, Fillion recently reminded people that wanting more doesn't decrease the value of what's there.
I totally get wanting more. We hear it all the time. 'Is there gonna be more? When is there? Could there be? What if there was?' And I get it. At the same time, we all had what I would call my dream job. . . . It's really hard to look at that kind of stuff and say, 'Give me more, because it's not enough.' Oh my God. It was everything. It was everything. How can everything not be enough?
You gotta love how beloved Nathan Fillion is. Here at the Long Beach Comic Con, the actor was on stage in front of a bunch of people whose interest in a new season of Firefly has no doubt caused them to ask those same kinds of questions, and he basically told all those people to suck it up and be gracious about what's there, and then he got applauded for it. He's like the opposite of a demagogue.
I would absolutely lose my shit if Firefly was ever allowed to move on in some other live-action form, but it's almost hard to get the energy to fight for it all these years later. Granted, there's still nothing on TV quite like Joss Whedon's western-tinged space adventures, but there have been quite a few years since Serenity hit the big screen, and the actors have all gotten a little older and a little less likely to want to go galavanting across the cosmos while battling Reavers and things. They'll never be too old for fans, of course.
The Firefly cast has been great about being game for talking about their time on the show, both the good stuff and the bad stuff, and that's commendable, considering just that one season has spawned over a decade's worth of conversations. But I like that Nathan Fillion is comfortable with letting fans know that they shouldn't be so gorram greedy when it comes to entertainment. It sucks to admit that the 14 episodes we got were enough, especially since Fox fudged up how they played out on TV at the time, but they truly are.
Of course, Fillion is probably cooler talking about Firefly right now than his most recent series Castle, which was also at the center of a somewhat heated cancellation. He got to play Rick Castle for way more years than Mal Reynolds, though - even Castle AS Mal, sort of - and I doubt that people will still be clamoring for ABC to bring the detective procedural back in 13 years.
What can we expect from the ever-magnificent Nathan Fillion next? He's got Season 2 of the web series Con Man alongside Firefly co-star Alan Tudyk, a role in the highly anticipated sequel Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol.2, and some appearances as a fantastically named weatherman in Modern Family.
