Firefly

Nathan Fillion, who reprises the lead role of Capt. Malcolm Reynolds in the upcoming SF movie Serenity, told SCI FI Wire that his character shows more depth than in the canceled Fox TV series Firefly, on which the movie is based. "Malcolm was allowed to be a little darker ... than the series allowed him to be," Fillion said in a news conference in Beverly Hills, Calif. "In the series we experienced a little pressure [from Fox] to make him more likable and nicer. ’Let’s make him, like, funnier. Let’s make him funnier. Lets make the show more action.’"

In Serenity, Fillion plays the skipper of a transport ship and its ragtag crew 400 years in the future as they try to evade the malevolent Alliance, as well as the rapacious and cannibalistic Reavers. Joss Whedon-the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly-wrote and makes his feature-film directing debut with Serenity.

For Fillion and the rest of the cast, having the failed Firefly rise again as a movie was a vindication, Fillion said. "We never stopped seeing each other, but you know what actually was good was seeing ... the characters again," he said.

Fillion added: "Joss had that plan of ... finding another home [for Firefly]. He said, ’I’ll find another home.’ And I said, ’That sounds great. That’s a really wonderful thing to say.’ [Mocks crying] ’Its really dead, isn’t it?’ It’s dead.’ I wasn’t prepared to fall in love with Firefly the way I did, and I wasn’t prepared for Firefly to dump me the way it did. So I was really depressed. I was pretty sad [when it ended]. ... I wasn’t prepared to kind of have that hope [again] and say, ’Maybe. Maybe.’ ... I didn’t want to set myself up for another depression and gain 20 pounds sitting in my house, not going to work." Serenity opens Sept. 30. It is being released by Universal Pictures, which is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.