Fox talks about what it would need to reboot Firefly

[Inari Writer]

Hi all. A, very faint, glimmer of hope for Firefly fans.

Fox have said that they would consider a reboot of Firefly if Joss Whedon was on board. They probably couldn't afford him these days though.

I'm too much of a noob on these forums to post links but if you look up firefly and fox on Nerdist News, (watch out for clickbait as with most net news sites), you should find the article in question.

I'm not sure if this would be a good idea anymore. Thoughts?

 

[TWErvin2]

I think that there is a solid fan base, should it come to fruition, but I am not sure even Joss Whedon could re-create the 'magic' that was the first series, and even Serenity.

My wife said maybe something like the follow-ups to the X files, a limited run of episodes, but that might be even more problematic in securing not only Joss Whedon for the project, but also some of the other principal characters/actors.

For so long Fox has been roundly criticized for mucking things up and pulling the plug prematurely on the series. Maybe, in some small way, its the studio's way of saying, "We might've messed up, but we tried to fix it...just couldn't be done. We gave it a try...give us credit for that." I am pretty confident that was not the studio execs' thoughts...but it sounds good on my end

 

[Overread]

Honestly it would be hard to bring the cast back together again and recapture the same magic; esp as Shepherd is now no longer with us.

Firefly almost got its cult status because it was killed off from Fox's internal politics and nothing more; bringing it back I'd almost want them to re-boot it. Start a-fresh with a clean slate.

It's not normal that I say that, but with so much change in the actors and the loss of one for certain; not to mention that others might not be able to return due to other contracts; with all that I'd say a reboot would be in order. And heck a reboot would be nice; esp if they got a larger visuals budget (Then again a part of the charm was its shoe-string budget*


*for a sci-fi of its nature

 

[Carolyn Hill]

I would be absolutely delighted if Joss Whedon were to write and direct new episodes of Firefly. I'd like to see the original cast play their original characters (now that Castle has ended, maybe Nathan is free), but anything Joss writes is golden, so I'll take whatever he can give us, no matter who plays whom.

 

[Inari Writer]

I would be absolutely delighted if Joss Whedon were to write and direct new episodes of Firefly. I'd like to see the original cast play their original characters (now that Castle has ended, maybe Nathan is free), but anything Joss writes is golden, so I'll take whatever he can give us, no matter who plays whom.

Yeah, I know what you mean.

 

[Pyan]

You don't really need the old cast, apart from a couple of guest spots in the first episode - you call it Serenity - The Next Generation...

 

[Null_Zone]

It would never live up to the expectations of the die hard fans, who in the echo chamber of the internet have turned Firefly into the greatest show ever. And so unless it met these expectations the bile would be truly stunning.

I'm not sure the vast majority of potential viewers would care and only be interested if it was any good, but their opinion (of even the basics of what they'd like) would be drowned by the vocal fans.

 

[Toby Frost]

I re-watched both the film Serenity and some of the show a while ago. The show is still likeable, but it does feel a bit creaky. While a lot of people rave about Whedon, I find that by and large he writes one or two dialogue types (basically "awkward geek" and "evil authority figure") into which almost everyone fits to differing degrees. The Wild West thing was generally quite well done, but the world never seemed to fit together quite right, lurching from high-tech to literal covered wagons at the top of a (ten gallon) hat. I understand the concept (oxen are easier to maintain that hovering tractors) but it was a bit too crude for me.

Also, I can't stand River Tam. I think Firefly basically doubles in quality when she's not there. She is the most irritating Troubled Mary Sue I've ever seen outside fan fiction. She's also an easy plot generator and a crutch for the writers, since she can do cool stuff whenever it's required. I suspect she just would have got worse as it went on, while more interesting characters like Book and Jayne were sidelined.

So I'm not sure if further episodes would have sorted out the problems with the show or just made them worse. To be honest, I'm quite glad it ended as it did, and never got the chance to go properly off the rails. And it would be nice to see more new ideas and less reboots in general.

 

[Overread]

Firefly certainly would have gone into the histories of their characters; heck Only Zoe and Wash were basically uninteresting in background; mostly because they never put up much of a mystery about themselves. River and Simon had their histories well known up to a point; whilst the rest of the cast had mysterious backgrounds; or at least ones filled with high action!

I'd like to see firefly rebooted because it never really got to develop itself; it got started but never matured into much. Serenity was a kind of rush to try and give it closure which it did well even if some characters were a bit shoe-horned in and if some scenes did change. We also saw some things; like the mule changing from a quadbike to a hovercraft; which hint at what we'd get with a higher budget Firefly - there's a balance in there though were dropping machines and riding horses over the planes has to fit into the western theme. Firefly was like that - you had space travel but also an almost backward western theme to many of the fringe worlds that is very unique and an interesting balance to have. Many sci-fi series everyone is in the spaceage or if there's a backward or not as developed area its a one-episode wonder affair.

 

[J-Sun]

Fox have said that they would consider a reboot of Firefly if Joss Whedon was on board.

Thanks for the info. Very interesting (at least, potentially - could just be some suit chattering but could be serious).

I am not sure even Joss Whedon could re-create the 'magic' that was the first series

Honestly it would be hard to bring the cast back together again and recapture the same magic; esp as Shepherd is now no longer with us.

I kind of agree. I was wondering if "reboot" would mean simply a "restart" or restarting at a different point, or genuinely rebooting. I was thinking that, if it weren't for Ron Glass dying, they might well make Serenity (great as it is) non-cannon and restart the show with both Book and Wash back. That would have been ideal. Second best would be to pick up where the movie left off. I'm not sure how well it would work - it's been quite some time - but I'd certainly check in to find out. I'm not actually all that interested in a genuine reboot with a new cast. I'd rather just see an all-new TV series from Joss, I think. I'd probably give anything a try, but the bar would be high for me to stick for anything but trying to pick up where we left off.

I'd like to see firefly rebooted because it never really got to develop itself

And this is exactly why. I was lukewarm (considering it was a Joss show (actively Joss show)) for awhile but I was just falling in love with the Serenity family when they cancelled it. The ship had just become home but I never had a chance to really live in it. Watching the DVDs (over and over... and over), it's obvious there's nothing wrong with the early eps either - it was just a case of getting to know everyone. I really think if they'd have done the "pick up the back nine, show the reruns during the summer, start season 2" drill, it would have become a major "underground/subculture" thing like Buffy was. It was executing way better than Angel and had way more potential than Dollhouse and so on.

But, yeah: recapturing the magic. That is the question. I doubt it can, but I sure think it ought to be able to try.

 

[Overread]

It might make new magic with a more serious budget behind it.

For me I'd say reboot from the very start; whilst long term fans know the story the legions of new fans won't so they'd have to recap. And if you can't recapture all the magic from before then recast and reboot. That allows you to reintroduce characters who can't get back into the series and any who might not want to get back.

I think it might mean that early episodes would be less interesting; but then again they could easily do a few different missions; introduce some more backstory elements. Heck they could even do a wildcard and introduce a new character into the mix (hard to do though to the original crew and I'd hate them to introduce a random bad-guy - esp as there were already several notable ones within the series).

But once over the hump of the early episodes we'd quickly get the story rolling again. Heck comicbooks retell the same stories over and over and over and they do well enough - even in movie format.

 

[Vladd67]

Would Whedon risk working with Fox again. Iirc he had reservations about doing Dollhouse with them, which proved to be correct.

 

[Overread]

He might have to, even if they killed it off they might hold enough rights to the material that he can't escape using them if he wants to do Firefly again.

 

[Toby Frost]

A further point occurred to me yesterday: in books at least, some series start out rather differently to how they end up (and are best remembered). After 5 seasons, Firefly might have looked quite different to what we saw. At the very least, I think that, like Buffy, it would have left the "thing of the week" structure and ended up as a serial with a story arc.

 

[Vladd67]

This was already being hinted at with the two men in latex gloves. There was also the question of Book's past. Why was it the crew of the Alliance ship gave him the full VIP treatment once his ID had been ascertained, just who was he before he became a shepherd?

 

[Overread]

The other aspect is that some of those questions are answered in the comics based off Firefly.

I think that Firefly had a good formula in that it had multiple character with mysterious pasts all thrown together from the start; which means even a character who is basically a heavy muscle guy (Jayne) suddenly becomes more interesting as you start to also wonder about the less exciting character pasts as well; something that you'd normally not bother with in most other series where, unless the past is presented to you; you don't really question it.


I think the Firefly also not having aliens was a god-send - because it meant that it couldn't become Monster of the Week. Instead it was more akin to "deal" of the week which is FAR more varied because they can basically do almost anything they want with that. From sourcing a job (Shindig) to doing the job; to finishing the job etc... And the nature of the jobs themselves can vary dramatically. It's a repeat formula that isn't too weak. And yet in the short span Firefly had I never got that "of the week" feeling from it the same way one got it in latter Buffy series.

I have to say also that Firefly stayed true; if you compare it to Buffy the very early episodes were darker and much more serious (she actually goes a little nuts and spends time in a mental ward/care after killing her first vampire); the story then evolved over time. Firefly seemed to already be quite mature and solid in its direction and I put that down to it not being a monster-of-the-week story structure.


Of the Weeks work great for many series, but sometimes its good to throw all that out the window and go for story approach. Whilst Firefly wasn't Game of Thrones it also wasn't Startrek (well you might draw parallels to DS9 which in its latter seasons did shy right away from monster of the week into their continued story war)

 

[Toby Frost]

Sorry, I didn't mean to suggest that that was a reason to not continue Firefly, just that the first series of many might have been something of a "throat-clearing" process where all the elements were put in place ready for further and much more complex explanation which would have sent it somewhere else (hopefully away from River being both the plot generator and the get-out-of-jail-free card).

I don't remember there really being any robots or talking computers in it, either. Certainly removing aliens makes it much easier to take seriously - and would make the eventual discovery of aliens, if it happened, much more important and something that could be done much more interestingly than usual (although I doubt aliens would ever have appeared).

A friend bought me three of the comics. I'm not sure what to make of them. They're not bad, but they feel a bit short for the stories being wrapped up. I think, ideally, I would have liked the questions to be played out over a number of episodes or just left entirely unanswered.

 

[Overread]

I think most fans would want that but put enough pressure on Joss to get some answers out as Firefly was dead in the water and unlikely to get resurrected. It's why Serenity the film was a bit rushed feeling; we got the same when Farscape died and they did their whole last season in a mini-movie format; again a little squashed but they got it all in without too much trouble.

 

[David Plantinga]

Hi all. A, very faint, glimmer of hope for Firefly fans.

Fox have said that they would consider a reboot of Firefly if Joss Whedon was on board. They probably couldn't afford him these days though.

I'm too much of a noob on these forums to post links but if you look up firefly and fox on Nerdist News, (watch out for clickbait as with most net news sites), you should find the article in question.

I'm not sure if this would be a good idea anymore. Thoughts?

When asked about this possibility in interviews, Joss Whedon has said that he doesn't dare try it. He's afraid that it just wouldn't be the same. The old magic would be gone and it would somehow spoil what's come before. If you consider Godfather 3 and the Star Wars prequels, to take up a series again after a very long hiatus usually results in something the fans would rather forget.

 

[apocalypsegal]

As much as I loved Firefly, I'd be afraid of it being something I couldn't bear after all these years. It would most certainly need to be done with a different cast (one passed, others committed to other work, not to mention they're a lot older now), which might work for new viewers, but not sure I could hang with it. Sort of like the Star Trek reboot: there was enough kept that it was like looking into a fun house mirror, with things all wobbly and skewed. I've watched two of the three (I think?) movies, but they just don't do it for me.