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There's almost never a show that gets cancelled and doesn't leave a legion of fans behind who spend significant amounts of time mourning the demise of said show. But, few cancelled shows in recent memory have had the fan-fueled afterlife of Firefly. The sci-fi series only lasted for one, very brief, season on Fox in 2002, but those who had dedicated themselves to watching it weekly still clamor for a reunion, reboot or anything that will give them more of the story. And, star Morena Baccarin believes she knows why.
Firefly's creator, Joss Whedon, was able to reassemble the cast for the film, Serenity, which served to wrap things up with its 2005 release. But, fan desire for more tales featuring the rag tag crew and passengers of the film's namesake spaceship weren't quite sated, as plenty of people still feel a deep connection with the space Western dramedy, and bemoan the loss of the series.
Morena Baccarin (who starred alongside Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk, Ron Glass, Summer Glau, Jewel Staite, Adam Baldwin and Sean Maher) recently spoke to Entertainment Weekly, and when asked why Firefly is still so beloved, said:
I ask myself that all the time. I honestly think it was ahead of its time. Nobody was doing sci-fi on, like, regular network TV. He did it in a way that was realistic. There’s no aliens, no people with five heads. It was just people in the new frontier. Which, now, seems even more possible when you think about what Elon Musk is doing with his company sending people into space. It’s just regular human beings having to leave Earth because we’ve exhausted all these resources and the Earth is dying. We’ve had to find a new place to live. I think that a lot of people were a little taken aback by that premise; the fact it wasn’t the traditional sci-fi, laser gun thing.
Morena Baccarin made a lot of good points about Firefly, here. I've watched a several sci-fi shows in my day, and I can't think of another series that blended the sensibilities of a Western (which were not in their heyday by the time Firefly began), with that of the idea of colonizing other planets. On top of that, as Baccarin pointed out, while there was, obviously, some amazing technology on the show, most regular people didn't have easy access to much of it, so daily life didn't look too much different from what we knew of frontier life.
Plus, the show was a pretty big leap from what even most hardcore sci-fi fans would usually see, as there were no alien races to deal with or ships that shot giant lasers in battle. Everything on Firefly was very focused on people trying to eke out a living in harsh conditions while trying to stay out of the way of the central government which went to war to control the various planets and moons people were now living on. But this, of course, is one of the many things that attracted a dedicated fan base to the series in such a short time.
As you might imagine, talk quickly turned to whether or not Morena Baccarin would consider a return to Firefly, should an actual opportunity arise. While there don't seem to be any firm plans on that front right now, fans can take heart in the fact that the cast seems to still be good friends, and that they look back on their time on Firefly fondly:
Unfortunately, we’ve lost one of our Fire-fliers, Ron Glass. But we are all in a text chain, we talk all the time. We’re connecting. Just a few days ago we checked in with each other to see how everybody was doing. It has a special place in our hearts. It was one of those shows that –and I didn’t know just how good it was or how good I had it until I went on to other things. It was my very first TV show.
I know we all want more Firefly, but isn't it at least nice to hear that everyone who was on the show still likes and supports each other? Besides, I think we all know that this fandom won't die any time soon, so even if it takes another 18 years for them to come back together on screen, we'll be waiting.
You can stream Firefly on Hulu, and for more to fill out your television viewing time, check out our 2020 Netflix guide and see what's coming to TV this summer!
