Once We Set Out To Do The Impossible… Again? | LIVE Announcement | Episode 19

Since we started doing this little social media blitz thing that we've been doing,

it raised your hand if you've got phone calls from friends who are saying,

hey, what's happening? Right? What's going on? And they want to know,

I got a phone call. Any Canadians in the audience?

I got a phone call from Justin Trudeau.

Once we were spaceman,

I tend to play weird people, usually aliens and robots and things that don't have romance.

I once didn't get a job where they were looking for a Nathan Filion type.

Once we were spaceman, once we were spaceman.

Good morning, Firefly fans. How are we doing? Are we feeling the energy? Oh my gosh,

there are so many people out there. Are you ready for a very cool panel with the cast of Firefly?

Excellent. Well, let's keep that energy going. Are you ready to welcome to the stage? Nathan Filion.

Alan Tudyk.

Alan Tudyk.

Where is he?

Alan Tudyk.

Sean Mayer. Summer Glow.

Marina Bakren.

Got it.

Come on, come on.

Yeah, I caught you. Hey, Alan. Look at all those fireflies out there.

Next up, we have Sean Mayer.

Gina Torres, there are so many excited Firefly fans out here this morning.

I'm saying.

Jules Stake.

Look at all those fireflies out there.

Wow. Really quickly before we start, I know this is a Firefly panel, but would it be okay if I made a quick announcement?

Whoa, not the time.

I have prepared some remarks, but I didn't want to monopolize this time, so I thought we would do this,

the way we like to do everything, which is as a crew.

So Sean, would you please stand up and would you please read this?

I don't have my glasses.

Hi.

My name is Nathan Phillian.

So I don't have my glasses.

Who's next?

You may know me from such shows as

Castle.

I'm pausing for applause.

The rookie.

I'm pausing longer for applause.

But if you're in this room right now, you probably know me from Firefly.

I didn't even have to pause for the longest pause there.

Safe to say I've had a wonderful and fortunate career.

Yeah.

That's Sean, greatly admires.

Thank you, perfect. You can sit down.

Gina.

Hi, I'm Nathan Phillian.

As some of you may be aware, we have been teasing

an announcement on social media recently.

In a stroke of brilliance,

Gina said,

Nathan, you handsome devil.

We should announce it at the Firefly panel.

Hi.

I'm Nathan Phillian.

There's been a lot of people out there guessing what we could possibly be announcing today.

If you guessed a panel, a podcast, a bobblehead, or some kind of crossover with my show The Rookie,

and Marina show The Sheriff Country Rookie, you'd be wrong.

But if you were one of the clever ones that guessed a new Firefly audio series,

you'd also be wrong.

Okay. Hi, I'm Nathan Phillian.

Nathan Phillian?

In the last 25 years,

I can't tell you how many times someone's asked us,

is there going to be more Firefly?

Hi.

And we have lost count of how many unfounded rumors about the return of Firefly.

But like some are always says,

if bringing back Firefly was easy, everybody would do it.

That's how old we are now.

Hi.

I'm Nathan Phillian.

Now, as much as I would like to bring back Firefly,

it would be impossible.

Hold on.

Some of us are currently occupied with other projects,

and some of us live out of town, and like Marina said,

Joel is just too old.

I didn't write it.

But it wouldn't be the first time.

That thanks to you,

the fans that Firefly had done something impossible.

Hi.

I am Spartacus.

I'm sorry.

I'm Nathan Phillian.

I read that wrong.

Being honest, we wouldn't want to do another Firefly.

As I said, I am Nathan Phillian.

Unless we could go back in time

to fill in all the stories we miss between the TV show and the movie.

That way, we could bring back beloved characters

like Wash,

and like Shepherd Book.

But especially Wash.

Have I mentioned Wash?

Tusson.

Tusson.

And because of our schedules and availability,

the only way to get it done is if we animated it.

Sovereigners.

Hi.

I'm Nathan Phillian.

If Adam were here, I'm sure he would say, Nathan, if we were to do this,

we would, there'd be a lot of moving parts.

We would need Joseph's blessing.

I got it.

We would need permission from 20th Century Fox,

slash Disney.

We got it.

We would need showrunners.

I got them.

The incomparable Tara Butters from Dollhouse and Agent Carter.

And the darn close to extremely handsome Mark Guggenheim from The Arrow and Flash.

We would need a pilot.

She's right, we got it.

We would need an animation house

like the Emmy and Academy Award-winning Shadow Machine.

The last piece we would need is a home.

And for this piece, we need you.

At this very moment, there is a post going out from the once-weaver spacemen Instagram account.

You need to like the post.

You need to comment on the post.

You need to repost the post.

Share it with your friends.

Share it with your family.

Share it with your enemies.

If you had something pleasant to say about Firefly, now's the time.

This will give us quantifiable analytics that I could take and show to the powers that be

that this is something that you want to happen.

Let's just take the gamble out of it for anybody who has any questions about whether or not

you want more Firefly.

Now I am not as smart as Jawswing, I am barely a Tim my near if he got kicked in the head by a pony.

But I know we can bring you some real Firefly comfort food.

Thank you very much for your attention.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled Firefly panel.

I think you're getting a standing ovation it looks like for most of the audience out there.

This is fantastic.

I truly don't even know how to follow up an announcement like that.

My first question off the top of my head is a lifelong Firefly fan though is how long has

this been in the works? How long have you been working on assembling a truly fantastic team to make this happen?

I'm completely in.

Only about five years.

Wow.

So was this born from the pandemic era then getting together talking about things dreaming this up?

Yeah presenting it there's a lot of it's not easy.

It is not easy. I'm going to tell you that if it were easy everybody would do it.

But here we are we're we're at the the final stage.

It's that close.

It is that close.

It was actually my hope but oh here we go.

Please enjoy.

Oh wow.

This is some of the Firefly key art that I think I've already shared with you guys on the text thread.

There are some people out there in the world who actually know about this already who have kept it

very hush hush which I really appreciate. Thank you very much.

Is there a wash?

Not yet.

Not yet.

But we're working on that.

Oh okay.

Your look is very particular Alan.

Right right right.

Well I mean for all of you you know looking back at Firefly and getting to be amongst your

fans so often at these conventions and getting to hear these stories and now looking forward

to more Firefly for each of you how is your relationship to Firefly kind of evolved over the

years especially as you hear these stories from fans and how this series that had 14 episodes

in a movie has had like a 25 year impact on their lives.

That's a good question for Jewel.

You knew you were going to say that.

That's a meaty question.

That's a meaty question.

I think we're all just continuously surprised that all of y'all just keep showing up

to these things.

No really it's always a huge very pleasant of course surprise when we're back there

and we hear you out here waiting for us it's quite an amazing thing and I feel like

this has been passed on now to new generations and their little kids maybe too little watching the show.

No but it's it's a beautiful thing that just keeps moving and I'm just happy to be on the train.

There's only a handful of people I think that have this experience certainly all the Star Trek

people and wonderful shows like that the Stargate which Jewel you also participated in but

we've had all all all of the positive things that come along with that experience without the

the decades of work that went into theirs.

It's it's incredible.

Anybody else have kind of reflective memories?

I'm looking at you, Gina.

You made eye contact.

Jewel said it.

I nailed it.

You really did.

I mean it is it is shocking and and I'm always an awe of

when you guys show up and stay online for as long as you do to just have a few minutes with

us and and share your experience and what Firefly means to you and that's always incredibly humbling

for me and I can't I lost kind of a how like how many Zoe's look little Zoe's and Kaleys

you know have come and and that I've hugged and that I've gotten to meet and see over the years

and that's extraordinary.

I read a letter this morning about an impact that our show has had or that my character in particular

has had on on people mostly all of you who are out there right now who are in the armed forces

that also is incredibly humbling to me and again I thank you for your service if you are if

you are out here in this in this audience right now.

So I mean what we do in general as actors is we send so much energy out into the universe

and we don't know how it's going to land or or how and if it's going to come back to you

and the fact that this Firefly family has made its way around the world so many times and back

to us through every possible emotional journey life journey is great I mean we've all gotten

invitations to weddings so hi that is fantastic I love when series have impacts on fans in the way

that Firefly has and obviously when you're at a convention like this you're being recognized

for Firefly but what is kind of like a fun anecdote of a time you've been out in public that a

Firefly fan has been like oh my gosh it's you I'm going to squeeze this story into this question

which really doesn't fit that is okay but since we started doing this little social media blitz

thing that we've been doing raise your hand if you've got phone calls from friends are saying

hey what's happening right what's going on and they want to know I got a phone call any Canadians

in the audience I got a phone call from Justin Trudeau

name drop that's a flex right there it's actually like a text in the video saying you better not

be messing with me Phylian I know people it was wonderful but people that I didn't know cared

when I find out that they care ah it's it's wonderful it really is it's always the quiet people

I find to like you know people will say they like my work and other things and then at the end

of the day if we've worked together all day long they're like I'm actually a really big Firefly fan

I don't know why it's such a dirty secret like a backpocket thing yeah but maybe because it's been 25 years

Alan and Sean have been very quiet you have any fun anecdotes at all for those kind of stories

and summer as well I have a ton I think there's a ton of Firefly fans that want to hear about

once kind of long so I'll just sort of cut to kind of the end and I won't tell you where this

happened or which state it happened or which store it happened but it was the manager of the store

when we had an interaction and then I sort of bumped into him again as I was trying to leave and he

had asked me how happy my husband and I really were you know because should it not work out

oh shoot your shot I guess yeah my husband are very happy by the way

Alan I have the same story

it's wild you know I've gone I've gone on like many of us to do other projects it has been 25 years

and I meeting fans from new projects and as we're signing and meeting fans you're seeing pictures

of yourself in different other stories that you've been able to tell other characters that we've

been able to bring to life but there is always and this is like with there's always Fireflies

always has maintained it there's like Star Wars has not pushed out Firefly it has maintained

aside by like it's it's right there it's wild and I think it's because I think it's not just because

it was such a great show because I do believe that I rewatched it recently last year and it was

cut off too soon and it was a great movie Serenity was a great movie that you all help get made

so this is precedent has been set but it was better as a TV show it was a better series in my opinion

because you got to tune in and see a new planet a new job new characters coming and then we'd

wrap it up by the end and then the next week it'd be time again and then the next week could be

baseball for some reason and then the next week it just wouldn't be on at all but that was Fox

and I also feel like one of the reasons that it has had such staying powers because

confans have so much imagination or artists so many of you are artists yourselves that when

you're watching stories like this you start telling stories you're ready for oh wouldn't it be

great if they went to this planet wouldn't be great if this happened wouldn't be great if they

did something like this and the magic of the show of all of us together really the way that we

all played off each other and we were all in the right role for our characters that you just

couldn't wait to see more and hope that your story would come along and so with an animated show

we would get to do that there was I think two months or something between firefly ending in

the movie starting some some distance of time there the joss had worked out and that is a forever

two months for us it could just go on forever eight months eight months even better you could almost

cook a baby in that much amount of time in your stomach not like in a microwave like gestation

stop talking what a profound insight there I don't know how to follow that up I'm going to be

really honest with you do not cook babies in ovens thinking about the fact that when you have a

fanbase like this for 25 years that continue to kind of invest in your characters I'm really curious

to know for each of you like how your connection to your character has evolved what kind of things

that you've been reflecting on your characters that you're looking back at and now you're very

excited to kind of maybe get to revisit and the animated form and some of those you know qualities

in them and I'm going to start you with jewel and work our way down the line it's another meaty one

I get all the meaty one yeah it's the person sitting next to the moderator I fear

I don't know I mean it's it's pretty simple for me I just wanted Kayley and Simon to have babies

that's it that's that's my number one that's tight and eight months but we'll work on it yeah

maybe they're twins they're premature I don't know well write that I like I like that storyline

you heard it here first summer rivers rivers the built-in babysitter so I got you and your twins

so let's just be clear we would never never leave our kid with river never

no fucking way wow that's your final answer wow dead anti-river throw punched me a kick me in the face again

haha all I said was Miranda hey well that gives me something to work on

animated series Gina for you I don't think about her at all

no well here's the thing it's been a long time and I've done other things I'm being honest I'm

being honest I've done I've done a few other things and it's also dangerous for an actor to stay

in one place because you just don't know if that's going to happen like I can't like I wonder what

Zoe would be doing right now I can't live my life like that I can now right I can now so I think

I'll get on that and for you let's see babies for sure but honestly I think when I was working

on the show when I come here and y'all reflect back to me like what you've taken from whether it's

relationships with river or Kayleigh and it's like I don't consciously think about that or do

that and so it's really quite wonderful to you know see what has resonated but yeah I don't

really think about it too much that's for Nathan and also like after serenity what really was

I going to be thinking about baby where the hell is my husband that's right

mariana for you I just remember thinking back at the time that we were shooting that there were

so many untold stories and so I don't remember them all but I do remember asking a lot of questions

of like okay where is this character really from what's the backstory there was some stuff hinted

at about an artist backstory and why she was running away which is definitely something I would

love to see explore but I'm open to stories and I echo what you know saying that it's a dangerous

place for an actor to sit and dream but we also have to I've been doing other things as well and

this is a reminder of the family that we have and coming here it's such a great excuse to see

these people and reconnect because we all are very busy and we don't have a lot of time together

and that's the part I cherish and honestly I don't care what story we tell it'll be great no

matter what because it's us and you guys

Alan Nathan I feel like you two have maybe been dreaming a little bit I uh I learned a lot as an

actor for training Malcolm Reynolds I learned a lot by working with incredible actors who made my

job so very very easy I didn't know how to thank you I didn't know how to be a captain of a ship

but when everybody treated me like I was the captain of a ship it just seemed to make sense everybody

did the hard work for me I learned a great deal that way and then I talked to the fans and I

learned about Malcolm Reynolds through other people's eyes and that's an education as well so two

fold Malcolm Reynolds has brought a lot of education to me real talk in real time I just got a text

from David Crumholz name drop some of you may know him as Mr. Universe

he said I wish my character weren't dead thrilled for all of you

I said we're going back in time you're still alive

Alan did you have anything to add or oh yeah of course yeah I have so many things that I want to do

I kept writing I was doing that thing like you guys where I was constantly pitching ideas for

stories while we were doing it I got a little there's little things in there that like the shadow

puppets because I was pitching that that's what wash was doing during the war that he had one

flight got shut down and spent the rest of the time in prison telling prison stories with shadow

puppets and I wanted tattoos there were so many things but we were hinting at a baby as well

which I think would have been a fun back and forth between us because if she's going out in dangerous

places with big old belly with a big old belly that is not a good place for a child to be

and I think it would be fun there's so many ideas every every when I rewatch this series there was

in every episode and every there was a point where I would have to pause it and it would be like

stop it and drop the remote and stomp around my living room go why was this canceled

are you kidding me I felt it very strongly so yeah I'm writing two episodes based on story pitches

you've had just those bad boys off yeah 25 years ago okay good and I'm also going to give them

to you to do like an Alan pass a little bit yeah good good good good good good I know one of them

that I know yeah I'll tell you this too what are my hobbies right now I love YouTube I watch YouTube

all the time is watching there'll be people who are out there who have never seen Firefly or

sovereignty who watch it and you watch them watch it they're the people who talk at the theater

but they do it in a better medium because they're talking out loud and and and one of my favorite

bits is I'll just kind of start fast forwarding there's that little thing this is the most watch

part of the video it's when watch dies watching people break down and cry and die inside when

your character dies it's like one of my favorite things to do not because I like to see them suffer

it's because I like to see that they're connected they've connected clearly and I love

watching people experience it at all thank you Sean I'm going to pretend you were being sarcastic

well since you mentioned writing how involved are you in this stories and I mean our scripts

ready are you still working on things what's that status we have the pilot I'm writing two episodes

on myself I'm not a great writer so I need help I like to say and I've said this before

our podcast if you haven't listened we have a podcast called once we were spaceman

marina you'll be a guest very soon been waiting for my invitation yeah yeah

the whole thing was we were going to have a second season we're going to do like a short season

and then have a second season next year and we're saving marina for the second season

but now we we haven't stopped can't stop the signal sooner rather than later

but I've said this before I consider what writers do what writers do is like a thanks giving

meal and what I do who is more like pepper I couldn't make you a thanks giving meal when I

grabbed great handle on the pepper Alan knows at the top of this panel you mentioned that liking

this post on instagram would help kind of signal how interested fans are in this are there also

other things that fans can do like streaming firefly so that's constantly back number one

on streaming sites and I mean what do you need fans to do that is actually happening as we speak

Netflix this was recorded live Nathan meant to say amazon prime video said I think firefly is number 11

right now on their top 10 charts has been a resurgence those are the things that streamers pay

attention to so you're doing everything right you're doing everything right spread the word where the

hats I still have so many questions about this animated series I've been sitting here what like the

last 30 minutes like just wrapping my mind around it so exactly how is it I guess it is it between

firefly and serenity and it's telling more stories and or is it like its own reality like a comic book

where it you draw you know like what is amazing I'm totally cool credible spider I am totally

cool with the reality we created I think that that's what fans want I'm not looking to change

anything up and make anything new I don't want wash to be a robot or AI I don't want shepherd book

to have passed I want what I loved there was an idea thrown around about oh we'll we'll tell

some stories about before serenity we'll tell some stories about after serenity I said I'm not

interested about what happens after serenity I'm only interested what happens before serenity with all

my friends there's there's clearly a journey that's been made I want to see the steps of that

journey they've clearly learned a lot about river in the time since the series and the movie they

they've cleaned a lot I want to know how they cleaned it and when they figured out that's what was

going on what did they do about it I had some ideas about that and obviously we're getting this

core group of the original firefly cast but are you interested in having new characters and doing

new things and I have been inviting a lot of my friends a lot of people that I know who I've met

throughout the years who I'm a big fan of firefly by the way they do that thing with me I say

do you want to come play do you want to come do something can I count on you to have some can you

I know incredible incredible writers who have said hey man if you're bringing that back I'll do

anything there's anything I can do let me know please and I said count on it I will call you

it's been it's been a wonderful 25 years of incredible nurturing wonderful relationships with

incredible people that I cannot wait to include on this journey fantastic I think everyone is so

excited I'm sure your phone is going to start ringing as we speak with people being like I'm

a huge fan of firefly I always spend I want to be on it that's what people are going to be doing

here in the next couple of minutes I'm sure you're friends but to wrap things up since we have

about three minutes left I know I know you're all heading back to your tables you have photo ops

today correct so fans can come gush about how excited they are about the animated series but

if you're still like how has this convent reading you how has it been getting to be amongst all of

these brown goats at the the tables and hearing from everybody what has been some of your favorite

moments this weekend so far this moment here on this panel getting to announce the

animated series this is crazy right I mean I think that we were on a failed TV show yes

I think we were hoping some of you would come out to see us this is out of control in a good way

in a good way when they told you your show was canceled would you believe them if they said oh

don't worry for 25 years you guys gonna be set do you remember that pity party we all had at your house

I do yes yes I do I remember I remember we got the news we hung out at my house we're all

gonna we really sucked the life out of us and I was not because we weren't finished filming we had

to go back to work and filming I said this is gonna really blow and it didn't it was like everyone

was determined to suck every last bit of joy out of that program that they could and it was

incredible it was like we would we're gonna have a good time despite it

well I think I speak for everyone in this room when we say thank you for making Washington DC be

the place where this gets announced this is fantastic thank you all for coming today and

standing there's so many people in this room today and let's put our hands together one more

time for the cast a firefly you got this now do what you do best

hello and thank you for listening this is Nathan Phillian now is the part where I read

allow the credits for our show in my best telephone voice so put on some headphones lay back

and relax because this is our time if you haven't yet you could always head over to our patreon to

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the show now is the time for quiet contemplation once we were space men is a collision 33 production

some of the names have a mention on my favorite people in the world and some of them have room for

improvement you know who you are if you hear your name being read please stand up this show is

produced by Shavon Homan Michelle Chapman and Josh Levy of collision 33 we are edited mixed and

produced by a resonate recordings with special thanks to Courtney Blomquist and Adam Townsell

our theme music is done by Carlos Sosa and Joshua Moore artwork by the incredible and incomparable

Louis Chanson but gonna tell you right now I think he fakes his accent until next time