Attending a Firefly panel, especially one that includes Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk, generally becomes an exercise in delightful overstimulation, and the panel Sunday 1PM in Hyatt Centennial II-IV was no exception. At the start, moderator Brian Richardson welcomed Fillion, Tudyk, Gina Torres, and Jewel Staite to the stage to thunderous applause. It would take a little time, but soon Summer Glau would join them.
Something that has become a tradition at panels where Fillion and Tudyk are concerned is the giving away of “crap” to the people who ask questions. At this particular panel, some of the crap Tudyk gave away was the top and bottom of a box that a gift had come in, the unused toothbrush from his hotel, a yardstick someone had given him (Tudyk’s walls at home are covered with rare and vintage yardsticks), the top page to a script, and an unused packet of makeup wipes also from his hotel, all signed by the cast with him on stage. If you were lucky enough to be able to ask a question, you were also lucky enough to collect your crap directly from Tudyk as he got up and down from his chair and came to the edge of the stage.
The questions and answers on a panel like this is more like loosely controlled chaos than a coherent event, so I will not attempt to recount even most of the panel. As always, it is a delight to hear from this cast that still likes each other twenty-three years from when the show first aired. A couple things we learned: Torres’s comfort show is the Carol Burnette Show while Fillion prefers to relax by doodling while a robot voice reads Reddit posts to him on YouTube. Glau would prefer to mix and drink margaritas in space while Tudyk would rather make some guacamole. Free food is one benefit most of the cast have received from being “just famous enough,” though Fillion did tell a story about a trip to Italy he’d done with his brother by the seat of their pants and getting a rental car when there were apparently none to be had. When it comes to pranks, everyone looked at Fillion first to answer that question. When it comes to unspoken house rules about farting and flushing, everyone agreed Jayne would be the most likely to break them. Disney Legend Alan Tudyk has more voiceover work coming for Disney as well as some things he can’t talk about, yet. And the Nathan Fillion Civilian Pavillion in Edmonton is vermillion, which makes it “one in a million,” a mastery of alliteration that warranted the bow Fillion took for it.
Finally, at the end of the panel, the question that was likely on everyone’s mind came up: What is the status of the animated Firefly series? Ahead of Awesome Con earlier this year, Fillion released several teaser videos on Instagram with the surviving cast members as a teaser for the announcement of the animated series during the convention. Fillion noted that things don’t move quickly in Hollywood, but that there has been creeping forward movement. Something to ask about the next time we see the cast. Maybe you’ll get some autographed crap in exchange.
