http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weyland-YutaniThe relevant portion:
As an homage to the Alien movies, the Weyland-Yutani logo was used on some weapons in the dystopian tv series Firefly. Incidentally, that show's creator, Joss Whedon, wrote the third Alien sequel, Alien: Resurrection, where The Company had been long subsumed and forgotten.So, IF Weyland-Yutani exists in
Firefly/Serenity then it is possible for characters who die there to come back in replicant form as androids that bleed milk!* Okay, I know Joss wouldn't really do that, and if he did I'd be torn between thinking him a hilarious self-referencing genius or a cheeky, unamusing madman, but still the possibilities are fun to imagine. Bring on the sequels!
*For those somehow inexplicably not versed in the
Alien movies, Weyland-Yutani often employs very realistic androids to do their dirty work and protect their interests. These androids are inexplicably filled with some kind of icky white goop.
You know, it's funny, but you could actually engineer an encounter between the
Serenity crew and the the
Alien franchise's parasitic Xenomorphs with relative ease. The crew actually consist of all of the prominent character archetypes found within the
Alien films. You've got the taciturn, take-charge captain (Mal), the creepy young girl (River), the gung-ho macho man (Jayne), the girl who is cute, but gets scared really easy (Kaylee), the guy who spends most of his time strapped into his chair hoping the monsters won't eat him (Wash), the guy who is slightly nerdy and genuinely likeable and who will therefore receive a chest-burster (Simon), a righteous black dude (Book) and... Sigourney Weaver! (Zoe)
And Inara... um, Inara... Inara will be off visiting a client while this is happening! Yeah! That's it! That's the ticket!
Okay, since I doubt anyone is as excited about this potential for crossover fandom as I am, I'm going to shut up now. But remember, anyone can be revealed to be a milk-spurting android at any time!