Joss Whedon's Serenity (2005) is at once a symbol of failure and a triumphant success of fan activism. The cult television icon's feature directorial debut functions as an extension of his canceled Fox series Firefly. Mourning their loss, fans of the show fought for more, making Serenity not just a cult film but a monument to cultdom. A minor box-office success upon first release, Serenity continues to be a sci-fi favorite, attracting fans, cosplayers, fan fiction authors, and more to conventions and charity screenings internationally. This book examines the relationship between the film and its peculiar cult following, largely established before a cult object even existed, and situates the film in relation to the series and its other transmedia continuations to plumb the status of different media texts and their platforms. Additionally, it explores those cult features of Serenity-a playful engagement with genre, with high and low culture, with gender roles-that predisposed it to such a fierce following, one that would follow Whedon into future series and blockbuster projects such as The Avengers.

Joss Whedon's short-lived series Firefly developed a fierce following while it aired on FOX from 2002 to 2003. After its cancellation, fans cried foul and demanded more, which eventually led to the 2005 feature film follow-up Serenity. The series and film were celebrated for their mixing of science fiction and western iconography, dystopic settings, underdog storylines, and clever and fast-paced dialogue. Firefly and Serenity have inspired many books and essays, but despite this, relatively few publications have focused specifically on Serenity, with Firefly often standing at the forefront of critical and scholarly consideration. It is certainly difficult to divorce the film from the series, but numerous features of Serenity do set it apart. In the first collection of essays devoted specifically to Serenity, authors from around the world offer various perspectives on the film, treating it as a text worthy of consideration on its own terms and touching on everything from formal properties, to narrative completion, to genre, to race, to systems of power, and everything in between.