Firefly

Fans waited all night in San Diego at Comic-Con for the chance to see the "Firefly" cast reunite for the show’s 10th anniversary. When the panel finally began on Friday afternoon, tears fell and ear drums were shattered as the loyal followers of Joss Whedon’s sci-fi western witnessed the cast and Whedon gather for the first time in a decade.

Though the 2002 series only lasted one season, its audience has been so passionate and vocal about their hunger for more "Firefly." The fan reaction led Whedon to release a 2005 film spinoff called "Serenity" and caused this reunion panel to be one of the most-anticipated events at Comic-Con. (And good news for those who couldn’t be at Comic-Con: Science Channel shot a new one-hour special chronicling the "Firefly" cast reunion that will air on Sunday, Nov. 11)

"The 27 people that saw it when it aired loved it," Whedon said of "Firefly" at one point in the panel, joking about its DVD-centric fanbase.

Below, find out what the stars how to say about their character, what Whedon would have done with a "Firefly" Season 2 and much more from the emotional Comic-Con panel.

The event started off with a "Firefly" clip reel, set to LMFAO’s "Sexy & I Know It", eliciting screams and then the crowd got on their feet as Nathan Fillion (Mal), Alan Tudyk (Wash), Adam Baldwin (Jayne), Summer Glau (River), Sean Maher (Simon), writer Jose Molina, writer/director Tim Minear and of course, creator Joss Whedon took the stage. Soon, the tears started to fall.

Summer Glau began crying after Joss came out.

When Whedon was asked what this "Firefly" 10th anniversary Comic-Con event meant to him, he said, via Entertainment Weekly, "Everything we were doing was for the right reasons, with the right people, that we were making something that was more than the sum of its parts, that I had the best cast I will ever work with." He jokingly added, "We also had Alan."

After "Firefly" star Fillion was asked the same question, he said Mal is the "best character [he’s] ever played." As the actor started to get emotional, he said, via The Insider’s Jarett Wieselman, "If I can get through this without crying, it’ll look a lot cooler."

In "Firefly’s" early stages, Fillion helped bring the cast together by creating a game. "We’re learning everyone’s names. It’s a contest. I’m winning," the star told the Comic-Con crowd via Cinema Blend.

Fittingly, later in the panel, Whedon spoke highly of Fillion’s leadership role, both on and off screen.

With an audience filled with fans sporting Jayne’s hat, when a "Firefly" clip rolled of the moment he receives it, more screams erupted, especially after Baldwin, who played Jayne, whipped out the hat.

"This hat is a goldmine. It’s like a birthday cake in a wasteland," Baldwin added, via HitFix.

When actress Glau was asked about her role on "Firefly," she said:

Whedon also told the audience that more "Firefly" comic books are on the way and though he’s not into doing an animated series, he would do a radio show. On the spot, Tudyk and Fillion started acting one out.

Whedon also shared what "Firefly" Season 2 would have looked like and how it would have differed from the "Firefly" feature film "Serenity."

"It would’ve been littler. Most of the Reavers would’ve been off-screen ... I don’t think I would have killed anybody," Whedon told the audience, via Hitfix, causing Tudyk, whose character was killed off, to raise his hands in the air. "I think we would’ve delved more into the Blue Sun conspiracy, which we had to drop. And we would’ve learned about Book and about Inara. For some reason, that’s the question that’s going to make me cry."

The "Firefly" cast and crew also shared their favorite fan stories and writer Minear’s was quite poignant for the moment.

And Tudyk’s favorite fan art story hit home with the panelists and audience.

Though the entire "Firefly" panel was emotional for those on and off-stage (and onlookers via Twitter), Whedon got the most choked up when he spoke to fans at the end (via EW): "When I see you guys, I don’t think the show is off the air. I don’t think there’s a show. I think, that’s what the world is like. I think there are spaceships, there are horses, and our story is alive."