Nathan Fillion Announces New ‘Firefly’ Animated Series

Firefly is on the verge of a comeback.

The beloved cult sci-fi western series aired for just one season in 2002. It then got a sequel film, Serenity, in 2005 but it’s now been over 20 years since the show returned into any form — until star Nathan Fillion announced today at Awesome Con that his production banner was working with 20th Television Animation on an animated revival of the show.

A press release says it the new Firefly is “set in the timeline between the original 2002 television run and its 2005 feature film continuation, Serenity, expanding the universe while preserving continuity with the established lore.”

Fillion made the announcement at a panel with fellow Firefly stars Alan Tudyk, Gina Torres, Jewel Staite, Morena Baccarin, Sean Maher, and Summer Glau — so I would expect to see all of them back in the new show.

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Unlike something like Star Trek, which followed the crew of a ship working for essentially the government of space, Firefly followed a crew of smugglers on the spaceship Serenity in the 26th century. The crew is largely comprised of veterans (and losers) an intergalactic civil war who are struggling to stay alive and away from their pursuers.

Joss Whedon created Firefly and executive produced the original series. He also wrote and directed the Serenity movie. This new animated Firefly will be overseen by writing/producing team Marc Guggenheim and Tara Butters.

Per the press release that accompanied Fillion’s announcement, the script for a new Firefly pilot is written and early concept art (like the image above) “has been developed in collaboration with the Oscar and Emmy award-winning animation studio ShadowMachine” with “the fully assembled package is expected to be taken out to buyers shortly.” If you’ve been wanting more Firefly, this might be the time it finally happens.