In 2002, Joss Whedon followed up Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel with another excellent genre series, Firefly, about the captain and crew of a rogue spaceship traveling the untamed far reached of space – an inventive mashup of sci-fi and the Western, starring Nathan Fillion, pre-Castle, as the ship’s cavalier captain. Firefly lasted only one season before Fox canceled it. But Whedon loved its characters and premise enough to revive it one more time, in a 2005 movie version called Serenity (named after the ship). And he was right to treasure it, because look at what the cast has done since. In addition to Fillion, there’s Adam Baldwin, who co-starred on Chuck; Gina Torres, of Hannibal, Westworld, and Suits; Morena Baccarin, of Homeland and Gotham; and Alan Tudyk, of Suburgatory and Whedon’s next post-Firefly TV effort, Dollhouse. Also in this movie: Summer Glau (also from Dollhouse), Sarah Paulson (from the American Horror Story and American Crime Story franchises), and 12 Years a Slave star Chiwetel Ejiofor. In other words, lots of reasons to watch – not to mention how entertaining it is, and that Whedon has since become one of the masters of the cinematic comic-book universe by inheriting the writing and directing of the Avengers franchise.