MovieChat Forums > Titan A.E. (2000) Discussion > Stealth prequel to Firefly?

Stealth prequel to Firefly?


I've been thinking about this, and I think there is room for a suggestion that Firefly is an uncredited sequel to this film. Think about it: in Firefly, Earth has been destroyed and humanity has long ago migrated to a new solar system, where they have colonies on numerous planets, presumably using terraforming technology.
In Titan A.E., we see the destruction of Earth, and the remainders of humanity are refugees. At the end, they settle on a new planet, created using terraforming technology.
There are problems, admittedly. Firefly avoids any suggestion that non-human aliens exist in its universe (they are certainly never seen), and there is no interstellar flight either. In Titan A.E., both of these are everywhere. Also, I can't remember whether it is explicitly stated in the Serenity introduction that life on Earth was destroyed by nuclear war between America and China, and that humans reached their new home by means of slower-than-light ships using cryogenic sleep or generations living in a self-contained on-board ecosystem, or whether these things are merely heavily implied. These are not necessarily insurmountable, though. The intervening period between the two time settings is probably several hundred years, plenty of time for the human culture to turn inward and make it clear to aliens that they are not welcome. In Titan A.E., the aliens certainly don't express any particular interest in humanity, beyond sneering at them for not having a home, or much else to trade for. I can quite imagine that such an interstellar culture, when faced with a race who reject them thoroughly, might just shrug their shoulders (or whatever they have instead of shoulders) and leave them be, concluding that they weren't worth the bother. I don't think it is ever stated in Firefly that they can't travel interstellar, they never encounter a reason to do so. As for the rest, well, an industry that can take blond-haired Scouser John Constantine and turn him into a black-haired American played by Keanu Reeves is more than capable of retconning the background of a TV series to make it more simple for a movie audience.
Maybe it's just kinda wishful thinking, but it would be quite fun if it were true...

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It doesn't fit. Aside from Firefly not featuring 'aliens' at all, Earth was never destroyed in the Firefly-verse, it was just used up and abandoned (check out the beginning to Serenity).

I can, however, see where you're coming from. There are similarities in it's look and it's characters. But I would refer you to watch Alien: Ressurection (I don't blame you if you don't want to) and despite a lot of Joss's script have been thrown about every which way there are early Firefly-ish signs in the crew of The Betty (I think that's the name of the ship) and it's the same here. Joss clearly had that image of a space cowboy rag-tag ships crew in his head for a long time that Firefly let him develop.





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As the other person who replied said, it couldn't be an actual prequel because of too many dissimilarities in details (aliens, etc). Though... when Firefly first came out, we didn't really know *what* the Reavers were. If not for Joss having to wrap up the story in Serenity, they might have ended up being aliens. It's hard to say.

That being said, I've thought the same as your for several years--that there are TOO many reminiscent things in this and Firefly to be completely ignored. They're certainly distant cousins, anyway. ;) You can definitely see Joss' creative hand at work in both projects. As a kid, I LOVED Titan AE when it came out, and if someone had told me Serenity reminded them of Titan AE, I think I probably would have actually gone and seen it in the theater instead of (sadly) not discovering Firefly and Serenity until about 4 years after the movie... :(

Probably wishful thinking, but it would make some shiny crossover fanfiction. ^_^

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What do you mean there is no interstellar travel in Firefly?

What was the range of the ship Serenity? How far could they travel?

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Serenity
Class: Firefly
Range:
400 A.U. (max fuel)
44 A.U. (max. payload)
AU (astronomical unit), a unit of linear measure based on the mean distance of Earth-That-Was to its Sun, —some 93,954,524.4 miles—
Serenity range at max fuel is 37.6841026 billion miles

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The entire series Firefly, and the movie Serenity take place in a single solar system. Since they do not travel to other stars, there is no interstellar travel.

Prof. Farnsworth: Oh. A lesson in not changing history from Mr. I'm-My-Own-Grandpa!

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Not possible. Aliens do not exist in the Firefly universe.

Prof. Farnsworth: Oh. A lesson in not changing history from Mr. I'm-My-Own-Grandpa!

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No, the prequel to Firefly is The Cabin in the Woods, which in turn follows Buffy.

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