Disney Plus could be rebooting Firefly

[Aeson]

Disney Plus Reportedly Rebooting Joss Whedon's Firefly

Disney Plus is reportedly in the early stages of developing a reboot of Joss Whedon's cult classic sci-fi Firefly.

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Is this a good idea?

 

[Aeson]

Give me a good one for no.

 

[Umbran]

They are terribly unlikely to get anything like the chemistry of the original, which was its real selling point. So, I don't expect this to turn out well.

 

[aco175]

There are no more original stories in Hollywood (Disney), but I would like to have something like the original.

 

[Aeson]

I would like to see that universe expanded. I think it would be a mistake to start over. Once River's past, and how the Reavers came to be were revealed, it would be hard to put them back in the box. It would have to pick up after Serenity, and deal with the aftermath.

 

[Khelon Testudo]

Yeah... nah.
It's time has come and gone.

Is there room for another sf series about a group of witty nomadic mercenary ne'er-do-wells and their ship? Sure! But not this one. Firefly is done.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Please do not take this in any way as a judgment of Firefly, but to the eyes of corporate suits it has to just look like off-brand Star Wars (and honestly, I love it, but it really is in most ways that matter). I don't see how Disney ends up making it.

They own the leading brand franchise, so I don't see how major investment in the off-brand make sense to media conglomerate brains. If Star Wars shows are doing well and they receive a Firefly pitch then it will probably become a Star Wars show about a crew of lovable misfits trucking around between planets on a funky and cobbled together but somehow exceptionally high performance ship, on the run from authorities and having various episodic Sci-Fi adventures. A lot of Star Wars is like that, and that is where Joss Whedon got the damned idea in the first place. He developed it more than any Star Wars media ever did, and is a strong writer in a way George Lucas certainly never was with a level of authorial control that most the non-Lucases helming Star Wars media have not had, but core concept-wise Firefly is the "Millennium Falcon in the old west" and for those not invested in the Firefly universe's lore the same stories mostly fit the galaxy far far away.

If Star Wars shows do poorly and they get a Firefly pitch then Disney executives will just assume that audiences have lost interest in all things Star Wars like and not make it for that reason. because that is how megacorporate media conglomerate brains think.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

As much as I like Nathan Fillion, even he could not make Firefly watchable for me, so maybe a better version from Disney would be a good thing. Plus it would give those weird Star Wars haters some sci-fi to watch on Disney+.

 

[Ulfgeir]

Depends on how it is done.

I would have loved seeing more of the original cast do more seasons. They had wonderful chemistry, and so much to explore. Remake with the same characters, probably not a good idea. Of course they could do some kind of series that take place between the tv-series and the film. That would work if handled well. Or go with what happens after the film.

Otherwise, they probably need to do new orignial characters , that do something similar. Might be set at the same time as the others, and let the original characters just be peripherially present. As in you hear rumours of what they have done, or they show up for a scene in the background etc.

 

[ccs]

I'm going to go with NO, it's not a good idea.
But things not being a good idea isn't often a deterrent in the entertainment industry....

 

[Dioltach]

Best to steer clear from the original crew and their story. It's not like the Battlestar Galactica reboot, which took a good idea that was poorly executed and made it much, much better - even decades later, Firefly still has a solid fanbase who feel very strongly about the show and the characters. But I think there's plenty of the 'Verse left to explore: before or during the Unification War, during the same timeframe as the original series, after the movie. Loads of locations and strong characters. Loads of stories waiting to be told.

 

[Zardnaar]

They are terribly unlikely to get anything like the chemistry of the original, which was its real selling point. So, I don't expect this to turn out well.

This.

But it was that specific cast that made the show imho.

More stories in that universe maybe. Recasting gonna be hard.

 

[BrokenTwin]

I loved Firefly, but I'm sick of watching Disney dredge up the corpses of old stories to soullessly wring them for profit. Firefly was worth it because of its heart (the humanity and chemistry between the main cast). The setting was set dressing for us to watch the family of Serenity.
I don't want to see Disney's generic spit shined version. Although to be fair, they might actually correct the blatant issue the series had of the massive lack of Asian actors both in the background and the extended cast.
But ultimately, I'm one person, and Disney making another version of Firefly isn't going to affect my fond memories of the original unless I let them.

 

[TwoSix]

I mean...Disney is doing a ton of new shows in the Star Wars universe; a show about a mismatched group of ex-Rebellion avoiding the Empire/First Order in the Outer Rim couldn't work?

 

[Umbran]

I mean...Disney is doing a ton of new shows in the Star Wars universe; a show about a mismatched group of ex-Rebellion avoiding the Empire/First Order in the Outer Rim couldn't work?

Nobody is saying the premise doesn't work. We are saying that the premise isn't what led us to love Firefly in the first place.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Is this a good idea?

No.

Let me explain why, in multiple parts.

1. The original Firefly is basically "the Lost Cause" set to film. Once you see it as neo-Confederacy propaganda, unwitting or not, it's hard to unsee. It's basically a "space western" that is retelling the story of Confederate soldiers in the western frontier.

2. The dynamics of some of the show, especially between Malcolm and Inara (the Madonna/Harlot complex, etc.) and some of the River plot did not age well.

3. Some of Whedon's ideas for the future ... no, thank you.

Spoiler: Warning, link to discussion of Inara plotline that is disturbing

Source: Did Joss Whedon Nearly Have a Bleak Rape Plot on Firefly?

I realize what I posted is pretty grim. And I say this is someone who genuinely likes Joss Whedon's work! And Firefly! But I don't need it rebooted. Any reboot will never recapture the magic of the original, which was largely the writing and the chemistry of the cast.

For those fans of Firefly- do you know how we got it? Because someone did something original. And every reboot is something that is not original.

 

[TwoSix]

Nobody is saying the premise doesn't work. We are saying that the premise isn't what led us to love Firefly in the first place.

Oh, I know. Since they can't reboot the cast, the only real reason to do a reboot is to maintain the general premise and the fictional universe, and I think the premise is more intriguing than the fictional universe. So why not just use the premise in the fictional universe they're already heavily invested in?

To be clear, I don't think this is a good idea. Great shows benefit from a particular alchemy between cast, crew, and writers at a particular moment in time, and it's not something that can just be recreated years later. (Look at Arrested Development!)

 

[Umbran]

So why not just use the premise in the fictional universe they're already heavily invested in?

Because telling people it is a reboot of Firefly, but then setting it in the Star Wars Universe would seriously cheese fans off? If you wanted to do this, you'd not speak of it in terms of directly ripping off another show, even if you owned that other show.

 

[TwoSix]

Because telling people it is a reboot of Firefly, but then setting it in the Star Wars Universe would seriously cheese fans off? If you wanted to do this, you'd not speak of it in terms of directly ripping off another show, even if you owned that other show.

That's why they shouldn't do a reboot of Firefly! To clarify, I don't see why Disney would do a reboot of an IP when they're already investing heavily in a more valuable IP that has a lot of conceptual overlap.

 

[Umbran]

For those fans of Firefly- do you know how we got it? Because someone did something original. And every reboot is something that is not original.

So, there a point where that doesn't really hold, though. Taken to its logical conclusion, that means that every episode beyond the first in a series is something that's "not original". That is absurd, which means that it actually matters where you put the line between, "Continue to explore this premise," and, "Go try something new."

It seems to me to be fair to say that the original Firefly premise wasn't really explored much, such that there's a lot of "new" territory remaining in it, such that a lot of original material is possible in a reboot.

There's reasons to not do more Firefly. Lack of original story space isn't one of them.