24 Years Later, Nathan Fillion Is Playing The Opposite Of His Firefly Role

It’s been 24 years since Nathan Fillion starred as Mal Reynolds in Firefly, and one of his upcoming shows is going to flip his cult-classic character on his head. While Nathan Fillion has been drawing attention lately thanks to his role in The Rookie, that was far from the start of his career. One of Fillion’s best shows came quite early in his career, in Joss Whedon’s Firefly, a cult-classic series that is now considered one of the best sci-fi shows ever made.

Firefly premiered in 2002 and only lasted a single season before being canceled, but its legacy has had much more staying power. The series got a sequel movie, Serenity, in 2005, and the cast of Firefly is now reuniting for an animated reboot series that’s currently in production. While it wasn’t initially popular, Firefly is one of Fillion’s most enduring and beloved shows, and Mal is one of his absolute best roles.

Aside from the upcoming animated reboot, Fillion hasn’t done much with his most famous sci-fi role in the years since Serenity was released. Instead, he’s been focusing on other shows, most notably The Rookie, which is returning for its ninth season. Now, however, Fillion is set to appear in Lanterns, the upcoming DCU show focusing on the Green Lanterns, and it should give him a chance to play a character who is the exact opposite of Mal in Firefly.

Lanterns Will Let Nathan Fillion Play A Sci-Fi Cop 24 Years After He Played A Sci-Fi Outlaw

One of the trailers for Lanterns confirmed that Nathan Fillion will appear in the show, and that he’ll be reprising the role of Green Lantern Guy Gardner, whom he first portrayed in 2025’s Superman. It’s not yet clear how Guy Gardner will fit into the show, as Lanterns seems primarily focused on Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) passing the torch to John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) while trying to solve a mystery, but Fillion’s character will have some role to play.

Guy Gardner is a returning role for Fillion, but Lanterns should give him an opportunity to highlight new sides of the character that Superman didn’t get around to. One of those sides, Guy’s role as an intergalactic, science fiction cop, will make him the exact opposite of Mal Reynolds in Firefly. Both Lanterns and Firefly are somewhat grounded sci-fi shows, but in the former, Fillion will be playing a law-bringer, while he played a law-breaker in the latter.

In Superman, Guy Gardner was mostly acting as a superhero confined to Earth. In Lanterns, however, Guy was seen talking to someone through prison bars, and given the show’s focus on the Green Lantern Corps, he’ll likely be acting in a more authorial capacity as, essentially, a cop. It should be a chance for Fillion to play the exact opposite character of Mal, the notorious smuggler and hired mercenary in a sci-fi setting.

Fillion alone is reason enough to be excited about Lanterns. The prospect of seeing him in a sci-fi setting once again, but this time playing a character who couldn’t be more different from his Firefly role, is fascinating. Fillion also has an additional 24 years of acting experience under his belt, so he should be able to bring even more layers and nuance to Guy Gardner as compared to Mal. For Firefly fans, Lanterns is unexpected but still very welcome.

Guy Gardner Can Be The Sci-Fi Role Mal Reynolds Never Became For Nathan Fillion

Lanterns is providing Nathan Fillion a chance to play a completely different kind of sci-fi hero from Firefly, but it’s also offering more than that. The only real drawback of Fillion’s time playing Mal Reynolds is the fact that it was so short-lived. As previously mentioned, Firefly was infamously canceled after a single season, and Fillion only returned to the role once, in Serenity. It should have been much more than that, however.

Firefly had it all: a great script, a great cast, a stellar first season that clearly got a lot of viewers interested in its world and premise, and Joss Whedon as a showrunner. It should have been a huge staple of Fillion’s filmography, and Mal should have been his big meaty sci-fi role that he got to explore and enhance over several years. That didn’t happen, though, and Fillion had to abandon Mal just as he was properly getting into the character’s head.

Luckily, Lanterns should be exactly the type of long-lasting sci-fi role that Firefly was supposed to be over two decades ago. Even if Lanterns fails horribly, Fillion will almost definitely return for the rest of the DCU. James Gunn loves him, he’s already appeared in Superman, and there’s even a precedent for actors sticking around: Milly Alcock is returning in Man of Tomorrow even after Supergirl bombed at the box office.

Finally, after 24 years, Nathan Fillion is going to get a science fiction role that he can sink his teeth into over several years. As the DCU progresses, he’ll only get better at playing Guy Gardner, and we can finally get at least a glimpse of how he may have grown into the role of Mal Reynolds. Lanterns will do the one thing Firefly couldn’t: last.