Exclusive Interview 01-09-2006: Whedon on Firefly’s future
Browncoats around the world cried out in despair when, due to an underwhelming performance at the box office, Joss Whedon announced that the saga of Serenity had ended. No sequels, no follow-ups, no hope. But Whedon isn’t a man to let his brain-child die; the man’s already resuscitated the franchise once and there’s still hope for a third coming.
“A sequel’s unlikely,” Whedon told Empire with a note of clear regret, “but it’s amazing what permutations of something can happen.” But if not a theatrical encore, that leaves… yes, you guessed it, a possible return to the smaller screen. “As long as I was able to service the characters with integrity and had enough money so that I wasn’t hampered, then I would love to return Serenity to TV. I love that universe; it continues and those characters live on. There could be a series, there could be a miniseries, there could be all sorts of things. I’m not ruling anything out. I’ll let it simmer for a while and see if anyone calls.”
As for why the film failed to rake in the cash despite uniformly glowing reviews, according to Whedon it’s all in the presentation. “It’s a question of marketing ultimately. The fact that I like to dance around genres with gay abandon has worked to my disadvantage. Nobody knows exactly how to market anything I do because it usually has so much in it. It has a diffuseness because of it’s origin that keeps it from being the easy sell. Some people also said that you can’t call an action movie ‘Serenity’ but I think that’s still okay. What was I going to call it? ‘Big Smash Bang With Boobies’? Which was, of course my second choice.”
DVD sales should, however, put Serenity back in the black and when the bucks start rolling in we can only hope that one of the suits at Universal looks at the numbers, adds the success of the Firefly DVD box set and greenlights a return for Captain Reynolds and his crew. Until that time we advise Whedon to keep his phone switched on.
Source: Empire Online
I think we will see Firefly/Serenity again in some small screen format, but it might be three to five years off. But the movie did give me closure and for that I’m grateful.
Wait until the rest of the world starts buying the dvd when it comes out… we’ll see Firefly again, maybe not today maybe not tomorrow…
I’ve been screaming for this for months now. Universal would have to be more brain-dead than Fox to let this one go. I’m sure a deal could be struck with Fox to release the rights to Universal. I say, it’s time to start the letter writing campaign to Universal.
The only real problem the movie has was advertising. As a fan of the series, I found the commercials less than exciting. I can only imagine what the average person thought. Joss’ writing, like my own, is quirky and hard to explain to those who aren’t familiar with it. It is only a matter of time until the fan base swells enough to earn another movie or series. The watchword for
fans will be perseverance.
Think Joss is being weird with the whole thing. In one interview he is quoted as saying he is done with Firefly but Serenity he is not. I know there are legal things with Fox/Firefly. But stop trying to dance around the legal parts saying there is no Firefly and only Serenity. Makes NO SENSE. Is there diff people in the crew? No. Is there a diff Captain on Firefly then Serenity. NO! Think Joss is only hurting himself and the franchise in the long run by trying t play Mr. Cool. Have a good thing going and a good show. Quit trying to dance around and be cute dude. Your father and grand father were the cute ones when they wrote for the Dick Van Dyke show and Leave It To Beaver. And I am being serious — they really did write for those shows.
I think Serenity’s failing at the B.O. is the fact the trailer displayed the special effects, a thin line of plot and SOME of the quippyness. Serenity doesn’t work because of the shiny effects, it works because of the family drama and style. If the trailer had gleened more into the characters’ situation versus the setting…
Let’s face it. Firefly/Serenity is better off being short and sweet. When do resurrections go well? Rarely.