OK, the party's over and it sounds like it was a very emotional one! If you're just joining the hubbub, in honor of Firefly's 10th anniversary a reunion panel was held at SDCC and news is coming in from all over. Here's a rundown:
Live Tweets below from the panel from
@lisatwingomez,
@VladaGelman,
@loquaciousmuse,
@KatatSDCC &
hypable.com:
The panel starts with a Firefly montage video set to "Sexy and I Know it"
-Sean Maher fell to the floor when he saw the crowd
-The crowd goes WILD as they show and intro video saying they are getting back together with great clips from the season
-Nathan Fillion gets a standing ovation as he takes the stage
-Joss Whedon gets a standing O that lasts forever!!! Time to start the panel! The casts thinks they are funny and leaves the stage
-Summer Glau started crying after Joss came out.
-Joss: I haven't come up with anything new, so I hope people still watch this.
-Joss: this is the best cast I'll ever work with... We also had Alan
-Fillion very genuinely on the verge of tears tells the crowd about how Joss was the first person to take a chance on him as a leading man
03.52 pm via Nathan was asked what Firefly means to him: If I can get through this without crying it will be cooler. Fireflly was his first chance to be the lead and Mal was the best character he ever played.
03.56 pm What was it like to tell stories in this world of Firefly? Jose Molina says it was great being invited into the sandbox and how hard it was to not push his own likes which were more sci-fi. Their job was to watch westerns before they started writing to get the feel for it.
-Sean Meher never once felt it was science fiction always felt it was more post-apocalyptic science fiction. His favorite show was Arial
-Sean is so emotional and speechless at how many people are here
-Alan said Nathan made a game out of knowing everyone on the set's names; it brought everyone closer
-Just played the clip when Jayne gets his hat....Adam has it, put it on the mic
04.05 pm Adam tells the story of the hat:
A woman who worked in the office knitted a few hats and he asked to wear the hat through the whole episode. The hat fit perfectly and he just loved it. Adam is now asking a question to give away the Jane replica hat he has on stage. The question: the name of the planet that Tracy asked to be buried?
04.12 pm How important were the actors to bringing the story to life?
Joss: He remembers the audition process which was long and ghastly. These were the people before he wrote it. He feels like the moment he realized what he wanted that the actors were the people before he created them. Summer is just so crazy…the amount of vulnerability and strength she can protray is believable.
Joss: Jewel makes me cry and Gina is the most badass woman I've ever seen.
Joss: heart is broken because the entire cast is not here because I miss them so much
Joss: everyone knows that Nathan is the captain... even at the party at your house 3 weeks ago
04.15 pm Why was Nathan the perfect captain?
Joss: You have to make compromises….(Nathan waits patiently for an answer)
Restraint, dignity, there was never a moment where Joss didn’t think Nathan was the captain. he was there to make sure that everyone was doing their best work and having a good time. Most people don’t do that. A visiting actor was once rude to the females in the cast and Nathan let him know it wasn’t ok. Joss explains that you don’t want to see that!
Joss: I think that movie [Serenity] was the finest explain of a nervous breakdown. I was determined to get these actors back together.
04.21 pm Crazy fan stories? Nathan says a woman walked up to a Joss in the foyer of a building and went to speak and she broke down crying. joss: I kicked her
Adam: Do you remember that time when we were off the air for 10 years and then thousands of people showed up to see us.
Joss: Dark Horse's biggest selling hardcover of all time is A Shephards Tale
04.25 pm Alan’s sister is an artist and he commissioned her to create a picture of Joss protecting a firefly from a bunch of Fox executives after they were canceled.
Alan: it's a beautiful painting. It has me in it.
04.26 pm Would you ever consider doinng Firefly as an animated series?
Joss: I get it but I was thinking more of a radio show.
Firefly cast (Nathan & Alan) acting out a radio show sequel on the fly. This is fucking awesome.
Joss: I wanted the cultures to merge. Is interrupted by Sean laughing and blaming Summer
Where were all these fans a decade ago? Joss: in preschool
Joss: the 27 people that saw it when it aired loved it
04.32 pm Nathan: When Firefly died I felt it was the worst thing that could have happened but looking back the worst thing would have been if it stayed dead.
Joss: can I get the credit for saying that?
Nathan: let's listen to the next intelligent girl in line [wearing a Captain Hammer/Mal shirt]
Fan: have you ever camped out all night for something, and if so, what? Joss: camping.
Last question at Firefly is so good that the whole crows goes "oooooh" and applauds
Would the finale have differed from Serenity if you had known it was the last season?
Joss: It would have been littler, Firefly had a smaller budget than Buffy and Angel. A lot of the reavers would have been off screen. He would have delved more into the conspiracy as well as learned about Book and Inara.
Joss: I wouldn't have killed anybody. [Alan puts his arms up, everyone cheers]
Where "still flying" is a big mantra of the fan community what do they mean to you?
The crowd is going wild as Joss composes himself. Joss: Only an idiot would try to follow that with a sentence. When you come out with a create movie and you feel like you are in that world and it has become that. When you tell a story you are inviting them into a world and the way in which you have inhabited it makes you a part of the world, like it is real. It doesn’t feel like a show, I feel like there are spaceships and it is amazing.
Joss started crying when talking about what he would have explored with more seasons and knowing when the show was going to end.
Everyone on stage crying at fan reception....
Summer hugged Sean. Alan hugged Nathan's arm in emotion.
Whole audience gives a standing ovation. Joss/Nathan: Speechless and the crowd gives a standing ovation. Then the cast does for the fans!
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That's it! As we previously mentioned, Joss Whedon visited the line of fans waiting overnight, but now we hear he was drunk whilst doing it!
Click here to listen to a GREAT podcast recorded on the Ballroom 20 line for the Firefly Panel at 8 am, courtesy of the SDCC Unofficial Blog.
Photos! Check out Miss Summer Glau representing the Firefly ladies, from
EW:
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| Fillion, Minear, Tudyk, Glau, Maher, Baldwin, Molina |
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This was taken at the Science Channel’s roundtable
before the team’s panel. If that table looks familiar, it should -
Firefly‘s set designer remade it for the occasion. |
