Perhaps it doesn’t mean as much to other people, but Alan Tudyk creating a web series and he’s got Nathan Fillion on board. And Gina Torres. And Sean Maher. To clarify, they were stars of 2002 science fiction television show Firefly, cancelled after fourteen episodes and now cult hit. And that’s pretty much what Tudyk’s Con Man, contrary to what the title suggests, is about.
Wray isn’t so happy on the poster, and he’s not too happy about his life situation either.
Con Man, ‘because Convention Man doesn’t sound as cool’ as the tagline goes, is about Wray Nerely (Tudyk) who starred on the science fiction television show Spectrum as a spaceship pilot. (A nod to Tudyk’s role on Firefly as a spaceship pilot.) Ten years after the series’ cancellation, he’s a big hit at conventions and pop culture events but he struggles to find any big success as an actor. His best friend Jack Moore (Fillion) played the ship’s captain (a nod to Fillion’s Firefly role) and he’s enjoying life as an A-list action movie star akin to Matt Damon. He has the kind of success Wray wants, and this frustrates Wray. As he navigates the odd people and incidents he encounters as he travels the science fiction convention circuit, Wray learns to embrace and love the fans he already has.
The web series is being funded through Indiegogo, a crowdfunding website. The campaign began on March 10, three days ago, and raised its target goal of $425,000 to produce three episodes in less than twenty-four hours. It also raised over $1.4 million dollars, which means it now holds the record of highest funded web series of all time across all crowdfunding platforms. The campaign still has twenty-eight days left, and the number stands at $1.6 million, at the time of writing.
The overwhelmingly positive reaction speaks of the fan support and love for Firefly, and Tudyk and Fillion wish to honor fan support through this series. Though it centers around the “kooky” people at science fiction conventions, Tudyk emphasized in an interview with Entertainment Weekly:
The kooky people in Con Man are not the fans. [The fans] are the heroes of this. The kooky people are the people who work in the conventions. It’s the other side of conventions that fans don’t get to see. It’s the people that we’ve met along the way that are pulling the strings behind the curtain, in addition to kooky celebrities.
Honoring the fans is also a stipulation Firefly creator Joss Whedon gave Tudyk when Tudyk sought his blessing. Tudyk told Buzzfeed that Whedon said, “Just whatever you do, respect the fans.”
The decision to use crowdfunding is indicative of this respect to fans. In an interview with IGN, Tudyk explained that he wished to partner with someone who knew the world of conventions, would enjoy being involved in the concept as-is, and respected fans and their world. Asking his and Fillion’s fans to be this partner, “It’s something that just made sense. This world of Cons, of the sci-fi conventions, is built by the fans.”
This dedication to respecting fans is something very refreshing nowadays. You can check out the teaser for Con Man below.
