 Firefly is an American space Western drama television series created by writer and director Joss Whedon , under his Mutant Enemy Productions label . Whedon served as an executive producer , along with Tim Minear . The series is set in the year 2517 , after the arrival of humans in a new star system and follows the adventures of the renegade crew of Serenity , a " Firefly @-@ class " spaceship . The ensemble cast portrays the nine characters who live on Serenity . Whedon pitched the show as " nine people looking into the blackness of space and seeing nine different things " . 
