With Nathan Fillion posting cryptic videos and speculation mounting about a potential Firefly reunion or reboot, now is the perfect time to revisit the show that launched a thousand fan campaigns. All 14 episodes plus the film Serenity are streaming on Disney+, presented in the correct order, a luxury the show’s original audience never had.
Fox famously aired Firefly out of order in 2002, starting with “The Train Job” instead of the two-hour pilot “Serenity.” The network moved the show to a Friday night death slot, preempted it for baseball, and cancelled it after 11 of the 14 produced episodes had aired. The remaining three episodes didn’t air until the Sci-Fi Channel picked up the series in reruns. It was a masterclass in how to kill a show before it had a chance to find its audience.
But Firefly found that audience anyway. The DVD sales were strong enough to justify a theatrical film. The fan campaigns became legendary. And two decades later, the show maintains a devoted, passionate fanbase that refuses to let it fade into obscurity.
