Serenity Composer believes Firefly might have done better as a streaming show.
In the era of streaming, Serenity composer David Newman believes the original Firefly program would have performed significantly better. Originally airing on TV in 2002, Joss Whedon's brief science fiction series was canceled after just 11 of its 14 episodes ran. But the show's later popularity on home video would propel it to cult reputation and finally lead to the Serenity sequel film from 2005. Serenity flopped at the box office and only recouped $40.4 million against an original budget of $39 million, despite great expectation and favorable reviews.
Celebrating the vinyl deluxe edition release of Serenity's soundtrack, which will be on June 28, Screen Rant chatted with Newman on the movie's premiere and the original program from whence it sprang. Though he believes it would have performed considerably better as a Streaming series on services like Netflix or Apple TV+, suggesting that Whedon had first intended for Serenity's story to function as another Firefly season would have gone rather poorly. Look at his remarks below:
Was cutting too short Firefly's legacy strengthened?
Some viewers would even argue that Firefly's history is best remembered as one cut too short rather than one that went too long and started to lose appeal since so many shows serving to overstay their welcome and have their quality drop in later seasons. Though often cited as a perfect example of a show that was canceled way too soon, original Firefly is still a cult favorite among science fiction buffs. Online critics anxious to see Nathan Fillion's Captain Mal and his ragged band of outlaws back on their televisions have routinely floated suggestions for a Firefly series revival since their original cancelation. Though many viewers have since thought it even had the potential to rival Buffy the Vampire Slayer's endurance, Serenity's 2005 release did manage to provide audiences disappointed by the show's early ending some degree of closure.
Still, much of the praise for Firefly comes from those who found it after Fox had already canceled it. The network's sometimes unpredictable schedule and choice to broadcast the episodes out of their intended sequence often impeded viewers throughout its original television run. Although Newman could be right in saying that Serenity might have performed significantly better on a contemporary Streaming service, the fact that just one season was ever produced greatly enhanced the cult appeal of the show.
The Universe of Firefly
Set in 2517, Firefly chronicles the crew of the Serenity, a contraband ship functioning on Alliance periphery. Veteran of a civil war, Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) is angry at having fought for the losing side and now makes his living as an outlaw smuggler out among the far-off colonies forgotten and neglected by the Alliance. But after accepting paying passengers, Mal discovers he is enmeshed in a plot probably meant to bring down the whole Alliance military on him and his crew.
Although the Firefly universe's defining event was The Unification War, the show kept the specifics of the Serenity crew's participation in it under wraps.
The influence of the Series
We completed, attended a premiere, and then Universal hosted a large celebration; thereafter, it simply did not draw enough business. Though it's a great movie, it's too bad. It's very fantastic. Funny, energetic, smart, fascinating, and with some quite outstanding performances. Summer Glau gives a really excellent performance.
The movie seemed to be rather ahead of its time. It would be more like an Apple or a Netflix extended series now, most likely as Joss first imagined it—as another season of Firefly. If Apple TV+ had debuted right now, I could see it performing really brilliantly. That's quite a valid point. Yeah. Looking at the differences between movies and episodic television nowadays, episodic television has gotten really excellent. Its results are rather good. Though it runs throughout five, six, seven, 10, or twelve episodes, it appears just like a movie. It is akin to a novel. It can spread in several directions, where a movie serves as essentially a short story. While some people are quite adept at short stories, a short story has to capture you right away, be about one major idea, and cannot truly wander. It's difficult to do when there are many characters and it comes from a spreading series. Perhaps it suffered from it during the time that came out, prior to all this other activity beginning.
