Nathan Fillion shared some disappointing news for FireFly fans at MCM Comic-Con. The 55-year-old actor, who rose to fame as Captain Malcolm Reynolds in the original cult-classic sci-fi series, previously announced that the show would be returning with an animated reboot.
However, while speaking alongside co-star Alan Tudyk, who played Hoban 'Wash' Washburne, Nathan revealed that the project is facing development delays.
He explained that the team has yet to secure a network or streaming platform to greenlight the show.
"So, you saw a video, not announcing a series, but announcing the development of the series," said Nathan. "Boy, it takes a lot longer than one would hope. The development to get a show onto a television network or streaming platform. It's not easy work, Alan, or else everyone would do it, right?"
Alan compared the production process to "developing photos when we were younger". "You go to a little box, guy who lives in a little house in a parking lot," he said. "That's how they would do it in the states, the Kodak part, and you drop them off to some guy who was certainly stoned and you'd pick them up a little while later after he's done rifling through all of your personal images.
© AFP via Getty Images"So, we're in the rifling through the personal images part," he continued, adding: "We're not ready to pick them up, but when we do, you will hear."
Nathan's role in Firefly
In 2002, Nathan burst onto our TV screens as space captain Malcolm 'Mal' Reynolds in the sci-fi drama, Firefly, which ran for just one season and a follow-up film.
Nathan has fond memories of working on the show, telling Esquire in 2015: "I had an amazing time on Firefly. It was the best job I'd ever had.
"It was a lot of firsts for me, and it was the most incredible collection of people I'd ever had the pleasure to work with," he continued.
Reflecting on the show's sudden cancellation, he said: "And when it was torn away from me so abruptly, I was quite literally broken-hearted. But I had a chance to go back in the biggest way possible with [Serenity], a major motion picture. We all did. So we were able to have a nice kind of final goodbye. We had closure, which is more than a lot of people with cancelled shows can say."
Nathan Fillion's career
Nathan's TV debut came in 1993, when he played Master Warrant Officer Tom Jardine in the action film, Ordeal in the Arctic.
He landed his breakout role the following year, when he was cast as Joey Buchanan in the ABC soap opera One Life to Live, for which he won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actor in a Drama Series.
This was followed by a string of leading roles in hit TV shows, including as Mal in Firefly, and Johnny Donnelly in the sitcom, Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place.
One of his most notable roles was playing the title character in the crime comedy-drama Castle, which ran for eight seasons until 2016.
© Disney General Entertainment ConHe currently stars in the police drama, The Rookie, which returns with its ninth season next year.
