It appears that some good, hard work went into the pilot for a possible TV remake of the short-running ’80s cult hit V. ABC has now officially given the greenlight for the show to return to our screens in one form or another (explained later) at some point in the near future. For a while, fans of the show were both happy and worried that a pilot was ordered for the remake, but no guarantees were to be had. Now it appears as they have just that.

V is the science fiction story of an alien race known as the Visitors, who attempt to take over Earth. The leader of this race — an alien who is very smart and educated on human cultures — is captured by what will apparently be a pair of Homeland Security agents, and put on trial for her actions.

Firefly’s Morena Baccarin was the first casting announcement that we heard about (Read: ‘Firefly Companion Morena Baccarin Cast In ‘V’). Morena will be taking on the role of the alien leader mentioned above — a role that should be pretty large and visible for our Firefly friend.

Joining Baccarin in the cast is two more geek-tastic names that I had not heard about. io9 notes that the two Homeland Security agents who capture the alien will be played by her Firefly pilot Alan Tudyk, as well as Lost’s Elizabeth Mitchell.

The big question here seems to be in what facet will we see the return of V. The two big-boy trades are both reporting this story, but one has the show returning for a good 13-episode trial run, while the other has V only being made as a “special event,” or a mini-series kind of deal if you will. Both links are below for you to compare — you have a 50/50 shot at guessing which is correct.

In any case, V sound like it’s really shaping up to be a fun time. It’s a bit ironic to see two Firefly cast members in the remake of a show that only lasted 19 episodes in the mid-’80s. Maybe in a couple of decades we’ll see a Firefly remake with, oh, I don’t know…Suri Cruise. The casting of Elizabeth Mitchell is also quite intriguing here. Does this play into things that we’re unaware of in the world of Lost, or is V too far off to matter? I imagine they will be filming the 6th and final season soon, so it may not make a difference either way. Feel free to add fuel to the fire in our Lost Season 5 Finale Discussion if you feel this casting will come into play.

[Sources: THR, Variety]