The first time we talked to Nathan Fillion for this week’s cover of Entertainment Weekly, it was shortly after 9 p.m. ET on Sunday, March 6. Fans of Firefly, which was canceled by Fox in 2002 after 11 episodes, will recognize that date and time as the day reruns debuted on the Science Channel. Fillion did not. “Is that tonight?” he asked. ”I knew it was going to record because I got the old search term ‘Nathan Fillion’ [programmed on my TiVo], so if I’m doin’ somethin’ it pops up. But am I doing anything special? No, I am not doing anything special. I thought I might go to a movie tonight.”

That sounds like the (healthy) response of a man who’s let go of the past, but, of course, one of the reasons fans love Fillion is because he hasn’t. Speaking to EW.com in February about Science Channel’s plans to rerun the Joss Whedon space Western — and seriously, how many actors with a current show, ABC’s Castle, averaging 10.6 million viewers do interviews for reruns? — Fillion innocently mentioned that were he to win $300 million in the California lottery, he would buy the rights from Fox and don Capt. Mal Reynolds’ tight pants again. Within three weeks, a fan-created Web page had received $1 million in pledges toward the cause of resurrecting the show. “Would I want to do [Firefly] again? Yes. Do I want people sending in money? No,” Fillion said, admitting the thought made him nervous. “But it warms my heart that people are going, ‘Wouldn’t this be great?’” [Read The Rest Here]