Ending Serenity

************** Killing Off The Crew *************

Joss Whedon climbed into the back seat of the huge, black limo on his way to the movie studio for the last day of shooting his film. He found himself in a dilemma. Of course when did the creator of Firefly, Buffy, Angel, and the Serenity sequels not find himself in one?

It seemed to be hilarious poetry, but since his first movie “ Serenity” Joss had been challenged to find alternate studios to continue his story each time he wanted to created a movie sequel. He’d started with Universal, then had gone to Paramount, then Columbia, then Warner Bros. and now ironically he’d ended back at FOX studios. There had been a Serenity 2, 3, and 4, and now the final, “Ending Serenity” sequel 5 was near completion, and would be in theaters at Christmas 2012.

FOX was all about “Ending Serenity” . They’d never admitted to their mistake for canceling the show after the first season, even when dvd sales hit the roof. They said it was about money and how Firefly had not generated financial success, but after the season one box-set reached record sales on Amazon, and was making tons of cash, there came a question. Should they restart the series or save-face? They chose to save-face, which proved that it wasn’t about money after all.

Anyway, like was mentioned, FOX was well invested when it came to “Ending Serenity” sequel #5 , and although Joss had, had a good laugh, as always FOX got the final one. They had told him to rewrite the ending to Serenity 5.

Now, Whedon had already written the ending to his final movie, but again he was being forced to create a new one. He had no idea how he was going to do it. This was the dilemma the creative genius of Firefly found himself in.

Since Serenity 1, Joss had set a pattern and followed that pattern all the way to Serenity 5. With each sequel he had killed off two of the cast members until he’d finally ended up with just the Captain. How was he to end Mal?

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