There’s a moment Nathan Fillion described at San Diego Comic-Con this past July that’s hard to get out of your head. He’s on set with Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre, two serious actors who play important roles in Lanterns. They’re all doing serious work, and the atmosphere is nice and friendly, like on any professional set. Then someone makes things happen. A lot of people have said it feels like a cloud rolling over. Everyone sinks a little. The brooding begins. Then cut, and all of a sudden it was time for another sandwich. Fillion looked really happy as he told the story. That kind of lightness, that ability to stand in the middle of high drama and still find something funny about it, is probably the best one-sentence summary of who Nathan Fillion is.
He’s been around long enough now that it’s easy to take him for granted, which would be a mistake. Fillion didn’t take a very typical path to fame. He was born in Edmonton, Alberta, in 1971. He went to the University of Alberta but didn’t graduate. He then moved to New York and got a part on the soap opera One Life to Live as Joey Buchanan. For this role, he was nominated for a Daytime Emmy. It wasn’t exciting. It was work. The kind of grinding early-career work that either breaks people or teaches them something about the long game. It’s clear that Fillion learned something.
The role that changed everything came in 2002. Firefly by Joss Whedon only ran for one season on Fox, which wasn’t even long enough to find an audience. But it made Nathan Fillion a cultural icon. Captain Malcolm Reynolds was a real person; he was funny, had a complicated moral life, and was worn out but never quite defeated. Fillion played him like he had actually lived that life. When the show was cancelled, fans didn’t forget. Fillion didn’t do either. He’s said more than once that he thinks of every role after Firefly as being like it. That’s not a complaint. It sounds more like a private standard he holds himself to.
In just a few days at San Diego Comic-Con, he broke some news about Firefly that fans probably didn’t want to hear. The details quickly spread, but the reaction from the crowd showed how much goodwill he carries with him. Not many people were mad. They were a little sad, like when you want something badly but can’t get it.
The story about the speeding ticket is worth telling again. Fillion got pulled over, the officer recognized him as an actor, and offered to let him off with a warning in exchange for an autograph for his wife. Officer on the phone: “I’m getting you an autograph, it’s Jason Bateman.” Fillion heard this before he could sign his name.” Fillion, without missing a beat, signed the card. “All my love, Jason Bateman.” He does a good job. There’s a looseness to the delivery that suggests he’s told it before but hasn’t grown tired of it — and the audience hasn’t either.
At age 55, Fillion is really busy in a way that feels earned rather than made up. This is the start of the ninth season of The Rookie. He is making The Rookie: North. Then there’s Lanterns, which starts on August 16 on HBO Max and has him play Guy Gardner again. Guy Gardner is the loud, bowl-cut, and overly excited Green Lantern he played in earlier DCU movies. Gardner is a strange character to carry: all bluster and misplaced confidence, the comic relief in a universe that’s getting steadily more serious. That might be the exact reason why Fillion fits. He can be funny even when he’s not.
It is less common than it seems to see someone build a career over 30 years without tiring themselves or their audience. There’s something consistent about Fillion that isn’t boring. As an actor, he’s grown, and he’s co-created a comic book with Dark Horse, but the core of him hasn’t changed. He’s still the type of guy who notices when his co-stars brood beautifully and finds it endearing instead of scary. That’s not a little thing. In an industry that can make people strange, he seems to have stayed relatively himself.
What comes next is genuinely interesting to consider. Lanterns might bring him back to the attention of more people who missed him on Firefly or lost interest during the Castle years. Or it could be just another good start to a career that doesn’t need saving. That is, Nathan Fillion shows up no matter what. Signs the autograph. Gets a sandwich. Again and again.
