Although 'Firefly' went off the air in 2002, its massive fanbase has kept the fire going for it for the past 18 years.
There was even a spinoff movie for it, based purely on the support of that fanbase, but the hope has been there for years that a revival would happen. After all, if it could happen for shows like 'The X-Files' and the like, why not this?
As recently as last year, there's been rumours and talk of one, and in a recent session of the Television Critics' Association, the topic came up once again. Speaking at the event to TheWrap earlier this week, Fox's president of entertainment Michael Thorn talked about the possibility of a 'Firefly' revival.
"The macro answer is, any time we look at one of our classic titles, if there’s a way to reinvent it for today so it’s as resonant now as the original was, and is, to the fans, we’re wide open," Thorn explained. "In this crowded marketplace, if you can start with some kind of brand awareness and IP that has a vocal support and, in this case, a crazy, passionate love for it, you’re ahead of the game."
Interestingly enough, one point that Thorn made was that the reason 'Firefly' was being held back from a revival was because of another space-set show - Seth MacFarlane's 'The Orville'.
"It had come up before, but we had 'The Orville' on the air and it didn’t make sense for us to have, as a broadcast network who is very targeted, to have two space franchises on our air," Thorn said, who said he personally loved 'Firefly'.
The crux of this is that 'The Orville' has now moved to the streaming service Hulu in the US, meaning that Fox now no longer has a space franchise on its air, meaning there's no real impediment to it - other than getting Joss Whedon to come back and run it, along with getting Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Adam Baldwin, Summer Glau and everyone else to return.
