For years, artist Stephen Byrne has teased us with little glimpses of an animated Firefly series that might have been: character sketches, a heartbreaking GIF of Zoe and hologram!Wash, you name it. In the intervening time, he’s also put out videos including animated Buffy the Vampire Slayer opening credits and a truly thrilling (and horrifying) comic sequel to The Force Awakens. And now, Byrne has released a fan-made teaser for The Animated Adventures of Firefly, with an interesting message: “SOON.”
In only 39 seconds, Byrne captures a lot of the atmosphere of Joss Whedon’s series—the mournful violin music, Reavers leaping out of the shadows—while incorporating some new elements: the aforementioned Wash hologram and little bots that River of course beats up one by one. There’s even a glimpse of the Alliance, though no allusions to the Hands of Blue (from the TV series) or Miranda (from Serenity). Give it a watch:
Alas, The Animated Adventures of Firefly isn’t an actual series… but perhaps the “soon” message is pointing to a longer video in our future, or a fan comic a la his Star Wars one? Because Mal said it himself: You can’t stop the signal.