Maggie Lovitt is the Deputy News Editor at Collider. In addition to reporting on the latest entertainment news, she is also an actor and member of the Screen Actors Guild based out of the Mid-Atlantic Region. Lovitt is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, and a member of the Critics Choice Association and National Press Club. While she spends her time writing and editing articles about the entertainment industry, Maggie’s background is actually in history and anthropology. She loves it whenever she can bring those two facets of her life together, such as with reviews for series like We Were the Lucky Ones and The New Look, and engaging interviews with talent like Ben Mendelsohn, Liev Schreiber, or Jonas Nay.
After Nathan Fillion spent a week teasing that something major would be revealed during the Firefly reunion panel at Awesome Con this weekend, the announcement is finally here. On Sunday morning, in an at-capacity ballroom on the top floor of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., Fillion reunited with Alan Tudyk, Gina Torres, Jewel Staite, Morena Baccarin, Sean Maher, and Summer Glau for a panel moderated by Collider's Maggie Lovitt.
Together they revealed that an animated series based on the beloved sci-fi cult classic is officially in development. According to a new report, the animated reboot series will see the entire cast returning to voice their original roles, and is being developed through FIllion's production banner Collision33, alongside 20th century animation. Creator and showrunner of the project, Joss Whedon, will not be involved with the project. Instead, Marc Guggenheim and Tara Butters are attached to serve as co-showrunners.
The animated Firefly series is expected to be set after the show's abrupt ending in 2002, but before 2005's Serenity, the feature film continuation which saw multiple characters die. Concept art for the series has been released at Deadline, with the art style honoring the original look and feel of the characters in a style that perfectly fits the beloved space western. “The dedication of Firefly fans has kept this 25-year-old show relevant. Clearly, the return of Firefly is something the fans want. More importantly, it’s something they deserve,” Fillion told Deadline.
After 25 years, love for the series has only grown over time, with the sci-fi series developing a cult-like following despite only airing 11 episodes of it's cancelled-too-soon first season. As early as January of this year, the show has been circulating back into the top 10 streamin charts, with Serenity also seeing spikes earlier this week as hype for the cast's Awesome Con announcement built ahead of the event. The series follows a band of space pirates on the transport ship Serenity, living and operating on the outskirts of society over 500 years in the future. Fillion and Tudyk have been building momentum to this revival for quite some time having reunited and launched their podcast Once We Were Spacemen which is also recording a live episode at Awesome Con this weekend.
Firefly is available to stream on Hulu. Stay tuned at Collider for further updates.