Movies - TV
The Ending Of Firefly Sequel Serenity, Explained
By DANIELLE RYAN
Fan campaigns can be powerful. One of the most successful ones resulted in the 2005 film "Serenity," which served as a follow-up to the canceled Joss Whedon series, "Firefly."
"Firefly" was a story about scrappy survivors and outcasts, and Whedon took that idea one step further in "Serenity," turning the crew of the ship into whistleblowers.
The "Serenity" plot is fairly simple: the crew of the Firefly-class ship discover that the mindless, deadly Reavers that terrorize outer space are actually Alliance civilians.
At the end of "Serenity," the ship's pilot, Wash (Alan Tudyk) dies rather horrifically when the ship crashes and he's impaled. He wasn't the film's first major death, either.
Shepherd Book (Ron Glass) also died earlier in the movie. The double-dose of deaths was frustrating for fans, who wanted to imagine Wash and Zoë living out their lives together.
In the end, the pilot's death wasn't necessitated by any sort of creative decision. Tudyk had other commitments and couldn't sign on for Whedon's planned sequels.
"Serenity" made a big splash among fans, but its mixed legacy and less-than-stellar box office turnout meant that the beloved spaceship would never fly again.