Entertainment
Upcoming Revival Is Going To Ruin The Best Sci-Fi Show Ever Made
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Right now, Firefly fans are cheering for some seemingly good news: this sci-fi cult classic is going to finally get a revival. Even better, the new show will be animated, and it will be set between the events of the Firefly show and the Serenity movie. This allows the animated series to sidestep the biggest problem a live-action revival would face: namely, showing us the depressing sight of aging actors trying to wheeze their way through acting young again.
However, as a huge fan of Firefly, I can’t help but think this animated show is going to ruin this franchise’s legacy. Right now, Firefly has a reputation as an absolutely perfect one-season show; if the cartoon is not similarly perfect, then the fandom is going to lose its mind. Furthermore, the fact that the animated series will have an entirely new writing staff means it will likely lack the magic of the old show. But even if the old creators came back, this venture would still be doomed because everything we know about Firefly’s aborted second season makes it sound like the worst thing in the ‘verse.
The Chicken, The Egg, And The Starship
Among Firefly fans, there is sometimes a “chicken and the egg” style argument about the show’s quality. Some think the show could have kept its momentum going into future seasons, and that Fox canceling the series after one season kept us from getting years of impossibly awesome sci-fi entertainment. Others think that Season 1 effectively captured lightning in a bottle and the cancellation was a good thing: after all, the thinking goes, it’s better to get one flawless season than watch a show you love sink into mediocrity, year after year.
In a weird way, my biggest worry about the animated Firefly revival isn’t that it will be bad but that it will be average. For other franchises, average wouldn’t be so bad, but the stellar quality of the original Firefly show will cast a big, damn shadow over this new series. Should we get a season or two of mediocre storytelling, fans will be disappointed because the original show set such a high bar. More importantly, it will only take one or two “meh” seasons to completely ruin Firefly’s reputation. It will no longer be a perfect show; it will just be the solid opening of a sci-fi franchise that simply got worse over time.
Joss In Space
A major elephant in the room is that Firefly was the brainchild of Joss Whedon, the same visionary creator who gave us Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Whedon was once celebrated as the king of the geeks, one whose kingdom rested on his reputation as the world’s biggest male feminist.
Later, the inevitable happened: his ex-wife revealed that he was constantly cheating on her with other women, including the stars of his shows. This happened during the #MeToo movement, hurting his reputation. Later, after stars like Charisma Carpenter, Ray Fisher, and Gal Gadot shared toxic tales of alleged workplace abuses, Whedon was fully canceled and effectively retired from filmmaking.
This is important because it means the Firefly revival, like the recently-canceled Buffy reboot, is facing an impossible situation. If they were to bring Whedon back, it would be seen as an endorsement of a very controversial figure, leading to the show getting canceled before it ever gets off the ground. But without him, the show is not going to have the exact same quirky humor and whimsical characterization that fans fell in love with in the first place.
Reportedly, the Firefly animated show is proceeding without Whedon, which is likely for the best: it will keep the revival from getting canceled alongside the original show’s creator. But as much as I loathe to say it, his absence means the new show won’t be as good as the old one. At that point, we have to ask the obvious question: why bring Firefly back in the first place if it’s just going to be a crappy imitation of itself?
The Stories Firefly Was Planning To Tell Next
Over the years, fans have fervently wished that Fox hadn’t canceled Firefly so that it could have gotten more seasons. However, that’s a monkey’s paw style wish, and I’ll tell you why. Based on everything we know about the stories planned for it, Firefly Season 2 would have been a disaster.
For one thing, there were plans to make Firefly much darker. Proposed Season 2 stories involved episodes where Mal decided to abandon a planet full of people asking for his help, leaving them all to die. Alan Tudyk pitched an episode where the crew would be helping some criminals who were organizing alien dog fights, getting our crew involved in intergalactic animal abuse. Believe it or not, though, that’s not the worst of it.
According to producer Tim Minear, the very first episode Joss Whedon pitched for Firefly Season 2 focused on Inara; she was the ship’s Companion, a prostitute with many of the privileges of a diplomat. Whedon wanted a story where she was not only suffering from a terminal disease, but also had injected herself with a special syringe that would kill anyone who had sex with her. This comes in handy when she is kidnapped by some Reavers who are known for intimately assaulting their victims. By the time Mal comes to rescue her, all the Reavers are dead, implying Inara had survived a very brutal ordeal.
In case you think that’s a one-off, think again: Minear claims that, after pitching this horrific episode, Whedon told him, “These are the kinds of stories we’re going to do.” Had Firefly gotten a second season, the show would have been a grimdark mess that transformed your favorite characters into a collection of monsters and victims. The show’s early cancellation saved its reputation; now, I can’t help but worry that the Firefly animated show will take its cues from these unused Season 2 stories, ruining this franchise the same way Picard’s grimdark storytelling nearly ruined Star Trek: The Next Generation.
The Hero Of Streamtown
Will the Firefly animated series be any good? As the hero of another Fox TV show might put it, “I want to believe.” The show has a lot going for it, including the return of the original cast and a groundswell of fan support. But it also has a lot going against it because, without the original creators, the storytelling will suffer. That could hurt the entire franchise’s reputation, turning Firefly from the most beloved modern sci-fi property into just another failed reboot.
Like all Firefly fans, I will be tuning in for the animated revival, and I really want it to be the best new show in the entire ‘verse. However, after years of crappy revivals like The X-Files, I’m steeling myself for disappointment. Should that happen, though, I’ll do what any good fan does and dust off my physical media collection. To paraphrase the Firefly theme song, “I don’t care, I’m still free. You can’t take the Blu-rays from me!”
Entertainment
New Star Wars Movie Failed By Solving Marvel’s Biggest Problem
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Right now, it’s fair to say that Disney is a victim of its own success. The House of Mouse decided to get into the streaming game with Disney+, and they made this new platform the home of all things Marvel and Star Wars. They succeeded in containing the world’s two biggest intellectual properties under one roof, but this came at a cost. The MCU began to suffer under its own weight, and fans began to resent many of the new shows on Disney+. The most common complaint is that most of these series felt like annoying “homework” they had to watch just to understand the next big Marvel movie.
Is that criticism fair? That’s debatable. While some Marvel shows on Disney+ stand alone, some are basically required viewing if you want to follow along with the newest films. However, when watching The Mandalorian and Grogu, I couldn’t help but feel like movie writer Dave Filoni was trying to avoid comparisons to Marvel by creating a movie that required no homework whatsoever. He succeeded in making a movie that fans could enjoy even if they’ve ignored Star Wars for the last two decades. This approach backfired, though. While the latest Star Wars is amazingly accessible, it’s so disconnected from the franchise that it feels completely meaningless.
Way Too Much Homework
Complaints about Marvel TV shows feeling like homework are tied to broader debates about what, exactly, a movie should be. Many like the idea of a film as being a self-contained unit of entertainment unto itself. This is one (admittedly, of many) problem that certain Star Wars fans had with the Prequel Trilogy and the Sequel Trilogy: interesting characters like Count Dooku and Snoke are placed onscreen with no real introduction or fanfare. The assumption made by those in charge of Star Wars (George Lucas and, later, Disney) is that fans could simply get these characters’ backstories in various books and comics and didn’t need to see it onscreen.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe took this idea and made it much, much worse. You had to watch entire films (like the solo Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America movies) to really understand big team-ups like The Avengers. Later, Disney+ became home to shows you had to watch ahead of movies. Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness makes no sense without watching WandaVision, for example, and The Marvels makes no sense without watching Ms. Marvel. This led to widespread fan complaints that Disney had basically assigned homework and that we’d need to watch eight hours of a TV show just to understand a movie.
No Homework (And No Meaning)
Initially, this wasn’t really a problem with Star Wars because The Rise of Skywalker was so bad that we went seven years before seeing a new film in the franchise. That meant that various Disney+ shows in a galaxy far, far away could mostly stand on their own. But The Mandalorian and Grogu finally brought Star Wars back to theaters, and we’ll be getting more franchise films (like Starfighter) in the coming years. Mandalorian and Grogu writer and new Lucasfilm President Dave Filoni seemingly tried to avoid the homework problem by making a movie that requires almost no prior Star Wars viewing whatsoever, a decision that became something of a double-edged sword.
On one hand, Filoni made The Mandalorian and Grogu the most accessible Star Wars film since A New Hope. If someone only vaguely remembers an episode or two of The Mandalorian Season 1, they can follow along. They know the title characters, and Din Djarin even gets a new version of his old ship back. Even if you’re a Star Wars fan who never watched the show at all, it’s easy to follow along with the plot. The Boba Fett-looking man and his Baby Yoda sidekick are the good guys, the Stormtroopers are the bad guys, and all you have to do is turn your brain off and watch.
Two Hours Of Your Life You’ll Never Get Back
On the other hand, Filoni’s ultra-accessible writing is a big part of why The Mandalorian and Grogu failed. The movie doesn’t touch on or resolve any of the major plot points from The Mandalorian or advance Din Djarin or Grogu’s characters in any meaningful way. It’s such a disposable plot that if The Mandalorian ever gets a Season 4, you could skip the film entirely before watching the new season. If the show doesn’t get another season, though, this movie is the worst kind of finale for these characters because there are no significant payoffs to ongoing mysteries like Grogu’s past or Din Djarin’s future with the Mandalorians and the New Republic.
All of this underscores how cynical The Mandalorian and Grogu really is. Disney didn’t create this movie to provide an emotionally rewarding sendoff, and they obviously didn’t make it because the writers had a great story to tell. No, the House of Mouse just wanted to put Star Wars back in theaters with a film that would wash The Rise of Skywalker out of our mouths. The idea is to prime audiences for more Star Wars films in the coming years, but the effort backfired. If this is the best thing you can put onscreen today, why would anyone spend good money to see the crap you put onscreen tomorrow?
So, congrats, Dave Filoni (and cowriters Jon Favreau and Noah Kloor): you played yourself. You solved the homework problem that has plagued Marvel by creating the most accessible Star Wars film in half a century. But the result is a disconnected mess, one that pisses off fans of The Mandalorian while making everyone else wonder why this film was even made. At least failures like the prequels and the sequels were trying to tell a meaningful and impactful story. All that The Mandalorian and Grogu is telling us is that Yoda’s admonition of Count Dooku applies very much to Clone Wars showrunner Filoni: “much to learn, you still have.”
Entertainment
NYT Strands hints, answers for May 30, 2026
Today’s NYT Strands hints are easy if you’re dependable.
Strands, the New York Times‘ elevated word-search game, requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There’s always a theme linking every solution, along with the “spangram,” a special, word or phrase that sums up that day’s theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.
By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.
If you’re feeling stuck or just don’t have 10 or more minutes to figure out today’s puzzle, we’ve got all the NYT Strands hints for today’s puzzle you need to progress at your preferred pace.
NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: We’ll be there
The words are related to traits.
Mashable Top Stories
Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained
These words describe positive characteristics.
NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?
Today’s NYT Strands spangram is horizontal.
NYT Strands spangram answer today
Today’s spangram is Good Friends.
NYT Strands word list for May 30
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Reliable
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Loyal
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Good Friends
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Helpful
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Caring
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Trustworthy
Looking for other daily online games? Mashable’s Games page has more hints, and if you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now!
Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you’re after? Here’s the solution to yesterday’s Strands.
Entertainment
Wordle today: Answer, hints for May 30, 2026
Today’s Wordle answer should be easy to solve if you’re always in a good mood.
If you just want to be told today’s word, you can jump to the bottom of this article for today’s Wordle solution revealed. But if you’d rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.
Where did Wordle come from?
Originally created by engineer Josh Wardle as a gift for his partner, Wordle rapidly spread to become an international phenomenon, with thousands of people around the globe playing every day. Alternate Wordle versions created by fans also sprang up, including battle royale Squabble, music identification game Heardle, and variations like Dordle and Quordle that make you guess multiple words at once.
Wordle eventually became so popular that it was purchased by the New York Times, and TikTok creators even livestream themselves playing.
What’s the best Wordle starting word?
The best Wordle starting word is the one that speaks to you. But if you prefer to be strategic in your approach, we have a few ideas to help you pick a word that might help you find the solution faster. One tip is to select a word that includes at least two different vowels, plus some common consonants like S, T, R, or N.
What happened to the Wordle archive?
The entire archive of past Wordle puzzles was originally available for anyone to enjoy whenever they felt like it, but it was later taken down, with the website’s creator stating it was done at the request of the New York Times. However, the New York Times then rolled out its own Wordle Archive, available only to NYT Games subscribers.
Is Wordle getting harder?
It might feel like Wordle is getting harder, but it actually isn’t any more difficult than when it first began. You can turn on Wordle‘s Hard Mode if you’re after more of a challenge, though.
Here’s a subtle hint for today’s Wordle answer:
To grin.
Mashable Top Stories
Does today’s Wordle answer have a double letter?
There are no recurring letters.
Today’s Wordle is a 5-letter word that starts with…
Today’s Wordle starts with the letter S.
The Wordle answer today is…
Get your last guesses in now, because it’s your final chance to solve today’s Wordle before we reveal the solution.
Drumroll please!
The solution to today’s Wordle is…
SMILE
Don’t feel down if you didn’t manage to guess it this time. There will be a new Wordle for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we’ll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints. Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today’s Strands.
Reporting by Chance Townsend, Caitlin Welsh, Sam Haysom, Amanda Yeo, Shannon Connellan, Cecily Mauran, Mike Pearl, and Adam Rosenberg contributed to this article.
If you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you’re after? Here’s the solution to yesterday’s Wordle.
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