Think the Snyder Cut was the first time an angry mob bent a major studio to their will?
Back in the 2000s, sci-fi fans pulled the ultimate hail Mary for a series they loved.
This is the untold truth of "Serenity."
Long before his name became synonymous with his behind-the-scenes behavior, and years
ahead of his rise to prominence as the creator of "Buffy The Vampire Slayer," Joss Whedon
was a workaday Hollywood screenwriter.
He penned a few "Roseanne" episodes, a few episodes of the original "Parenthood," and
got his big break on the writing team for the now classic "Toy Story."
Whedon then shifted his focus to writing sci-fi with "Alien: Resurrection" — the fourth
installment of the intergalactic horror franchise.
In "Resurrection," series protagonist Ellen Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver, encountered
a crew of space mercenaries bearing more than a passing resemblance to the "Firefly" crew.
While there's not a one-to-one comparison between the "Resurrection" gang and the Serenity
crew, let's say Mal and his associates are kind of like Buffy to "Resurrection's" Faith.
It all just goes to show elements of "Firefly" existed in Whedon's imagination way before
the early 2000s.
In some ways, the real world story of "Firefly" and "Serenity" hinges on the technological
acceleration of their era.
Social media was in its infancy of relevancy in 2002; but that didn't stop Whedon's very
online fanbase from getting loudly perturbed about Fox canning their new favorite show.
"You suck!"
As Facebook wouldn't be invented for a few more years, "Firefly" fans — nicknamed Browncoats,
in homage to the Independent Planets Army from the show's mythology — had to rely
on digital message boards and forums to vent their indignation.
Biographer Amy Pascale said:
"I believe it was one of the first [instances] where the producers reached out and asked
fans for their help [to save the show]."
Similar online campaigns eventually rose up in attempts to reverse the cancellations of
CBS's "Jericho" and NBC's "Community."
Over the years, fan backlash rightly or wrongly directed at film and TV studios expanded into
a potentially terrifying force of its own.
The most notorious example being the campaign for "Zack Snyder's Justice League," a new
edit of "Justice League," which had credited Whedon as its primary director.
Ironically, online fan rage became relevant in the entertainment industry because fans
wanted more of Joss Whedon's work, and its biggest moment came at the hands of fans who
wanted his work replaced with someone else's.
Angry ranting on the internet is well and good; but on its own, it wasn't enough to
convince movie studios and producers that "Firefly" had a large enough audience to support
it on a new network.
You couldn't find evidence of "Firefly" doing strong numbers on Hulu, either, because there
was no Hulu in the early 2000s.
But DVD sales were one quantifiable metric that could gauge the popularity of any movie
or TV show.
Upon its release, "Firefly: The Complete Series" — which helpfully included the three episodes
that never made it to air in the U.S. — crashed through the 200,000 units-sold ceiling pretty
quickly.
An IGN article from around the same time states that Amazon burned through its supply of "Firefly"
DVDs on preorders before they were officially available for purchase.
For a series that was poorly promoted, aired in the wrong order, and axed after about four
months, that's quite a lot of box sets.
The comparatively surprising retail boom established a perception that "Firefly" contained untapped
potential as a franchise in some form.
While he came to the table with more than 30 episodes of directed television to his
name, the cinematic follow-up to "Firefly" marks Whedon's debut as a major motion picture
director, some 15 years into his emergence as an active Hollywood creative professional.
Even after 2005’s "Serenity," he didn't direct another movie until "The Avengers."
In Total, Joss Whedon has directed hour films: the comparatively low-budget cult film "Serenity,"
the hugely popular “Avengers” and its sequel “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” and
"Much Ado About Nothing" — a zero-budget Shakespeare adaptation he made at his house
with actor buddies for a lark.
Dude's had a weird career.
Of course, Whedon also wrote "Serenity," describing the process as an usually challenging endeavor,
he said in an IGN interview in 2003.
Whedon explained:
"I want to tell a mythic and exciting and timeless tale about nine people that [the
audience has] never met, and yet not betray or repeat anything I do on the series.
It's going to be tough."
As far as fan and critical consensus goes, it looks like he pulled it off.
Although films reaching for the same visual scope "Serenity" targeted typically cost north
of $100 million to make in those days, Universal encouraged Whedon to locate production in
a cheaper country to keep costs down.
In defiance of such conventional wisdom, Whedon insisted on shooting in his home city — earning
him some good press and goodwill from the Los Angeles community.
Somehow, he reportedly delivered "Serenity" to the studio for less than $40 million.
Whedon's other demand was that the original cast return to their formerly-TV roles, which
wasn't a problem, as the Universal executives overseeing the project took an if-it's-not-broke
approach to the "Serenity" roster of actors.
Nathan Fillion's job, most assuredly, was locked in.
It has since been revealed that Alan Tudyk's inability to sign on for a sequel is partially
to blame for Wash's tragic fate.
Knowing what we know now, that makes the end of his story extra sad — without a "Serenity
sequel," Wash died for nothing.
Sarah Paulson plays Dr. Caron, a scientist who reveals The Alliance inadvertently created
the ultra-violent race of ex-humans known as Reavers.
"Their aggressor response increased beyond madness.
They have become— well they've killed most of us."
This brings about a plot twist that transcends the movie to impact the entire franchise mythos.
So, despite appearing on screen for less than two minutes before dying horribly, Dr. Caron
is an extremely important "Serenity" character.
This isn't quite an unknown background extra going on to become a major Hollywood commodity;
Paulson was already well established among the ranks of TV and film actors before she
landed this brief but highly memorable part in "Serenity."
But Ryan Murphy had yet to come into fruition, and therefore Paulson was not yet able to
star in virtually every Ryan Murphy-related project, nor had she achieved her current
movie star status.
So, although Sarah Paulson wasn't exactly an unknown before her appearance in "Serenity,"
she definitely secured a key "Serenity" moment during her on-the-way-up phase.
The folks in charge of determining what did and did not stay on the Fox Network in the
late '90s and early 2000s don't exactly have a spotless track record.
Canceling "Family Guy" after its first pair of seasons is the most glaring example of
their questionable competence; but they also canned "Arrested Development" and "Futurama"
— two other programs now considered classic comedy staples.
If "Serenity" had panned out as a cinematic juggernaut, spawned a string of sequels, and
turned the cast into bona fide movie stars, Fox executives would've had to face up to
how hard they botched the "Firefly" rollout.
Instead, "Serenity" failed to surpass the $40 million mark — so, after you factor
in its promotional costs, "Serenity" was a net negative for Universal.
For reasons totally independent of its quality, "Serenity" simply didn't click with mainstream
moviegoers.
"Yes?
I don't get it."
So if the Fox execs thought "Firefly" would be wildly beloved by a sci-fi fringe, but
never attract enough viewers to justify spending at least a million dollars per episode to
keep it on network TV, "Serenity" ticket stubs confirmed their suspicions.
While Seth MacFarlane made Fox execs look clueless, Joss Whedon may have done the opposite.
Doing press to promote "Firefly" reruns on basic cable back in 2011, Nathan Fillion mentioned
to EW:
"If I got $300 million from the California Lottery, the first thing I would do is buy
the rights to ‘Firefly,’ make it on my own, and distribute it on the Internet."
He did not assume anyone would take that statement literally or seriously.
He assumed poorly.
As it turned out, many people took him literally and seriously, and an online fund-raising
campaign to buy "Firefly" and give it to Nathan Fillion promptly sprouted legs and started
jogging.
Fillion himself had to tell folks to power down.
Fillan, further explaining himself in a followup interview, said:
"Would I want to do ["Firefly"] again?
Yes.
Do I want people sending in money?
No,"
If we can judge the success of a TV show and/or movie by the jobs its cast scrounge up after
the fact, then "Firefly" and "Serenity" did better than their ratings and box office returns
might indicate.
After eight seasons in the titular role of "Castle," Nathan Fillion currently stars in
"The Rookie."
Gina Torres went on to join the cast of "Suits," and guest starred on "Westworld," "Riverdale,"
and "Hannibal," among other TV shows.
Alan Tudyk voiced K-2SO in "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," and routinely provides voice
acting and/or onscreen cameos for other high profile sci-fi/superhero/nerd stuff.
Morena Baccarin showed up in TV shows like "Homeland" and "Gotham," and was the female
lead in "Deadpool" — arguably the most surprising superhero smash of the last decade.
After appearing in a pair of episodes as Malcom's wife Saffron, Christina Hendricks broke through
on TV screens in the role of Joan Harris on "Mad Men."
Of course there's some idle, noncommittal executive chat about a "Firefly" relaunch.
But as of this writing, there are no announcements or credible rumors indicating an imminent
return of The Serenity to any screens, be they big or small.
This might be for the best.
In the eyes of some, the show's legacy may have benefited from its abbreviated run.
As Nathan Fillion himself mused in a 2015 Esquire article,
"'Firefly,' as short-lived as it was, never had an opportunity to suck.
It didn't have that, 'Oh, well, Season 2 was kind of slow.
It picked up in Season 3 and Season 4 was great.'"
With Hollywood endlessly rebooting, relaunching, and rehashing any established property it
thinks is worth another penny, maybe the Big Streaming Nostalgia Machine really doesn't
need to frack 10 more episodes of "Firefly" out of Joss Whedon.
Twenty years further into their careers, the original cast might be expensive and difficult
to schedule.
Also, if fans have learned anything from the final seasons of "Arrested Development" and
"The X-Files," it's that more isn't always better.
"Firefly" fans got 14 episodes and a movie.
Maybe that's plenty.
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