Alan Tudyk, Nathan Fillion, Seth Green, and Felicia Day, the stars of Con Man, made an appearance at a panel on Friday at New York Comic-Con to talk about the new web series.

Called an event 13 years in the making, Alan Tudyk (Firefly, I Robot) and Nathan Fillion (Castle, Firefly) developed the idea for Con Man in Tudyk’s kitchen. Later, we’d find during the panel that most of the ideas, sans two, were Tudyk’s. Their ideas were to have a show about actors and conventions, and the fans that worship them. The problem: no producers wanted it. Tudyk relayed later that many wanted to mock the fans and portray cosplayers as weirdos instead of devoted lovers of the art. Together they took to Indiegogo and through their devoted fans raised $3.2 million through 46,000 fan donations and did the show as a web series.

Tudyk and Fillion just love messing around; they came out to each other’s intro each holding the other’s cardboard cut out. Finally, Tudyk was introduced as “the world’s favorite dead pilot”… spoiler alert if you’re a decade late on Firefly, the TV series and movie sequel the two starred in. Speaking of Firefly, we got a clip from the upcoming episode of Con Man and who is giving Tudyk orders”¦ his former onscreen wife, Gina Torres!!! The clip literally had people in the audience in tears laughing as Tudyk was doing voiceovers for a video game and his was the wimpy soldier. Milo Ventimiglia is hilarious in his tough guy soldier voiceover role. Tudyk joked that he actually played a weakling soldier in Halo 3.

Asked about their favorite convention moments:

Seth Green mentioned people coming up to ask about their projects; and that Mass Effect fans get to be intimate with him for 60+ hours. Felicia Day had a sad, and really awkward moment when a man asked to sign a poster to his wife… who had passed away. Nathan Fillion talked about being on a show and having fun, but then being an important part of fans’ lives: “You needed me” he whispered in a steamy Castle-ly voice. For Tudyk, it was simply people funding the project, which drew huge applause.

What’s the future for Con Man? Fillion stole the panel: “If he starts a second season, I’ll destroy it; it’s what Alan’s used to (HAHA), then we’ll make a movie”¦ and kill him (in sinister whisper) HAHA”¦ if you don’t get those jokes”¦ seriously go watch Firefly! Bottomline; they’d like to make more episodes.

Fan Questions:

“Did you get any other actors, or just your friends for Con Man?”
Tudyk responded – “Mostly friends who actually helped raised money.”

A fan actually brought up 2 Guys a Girl and a Pizza Place to Nathan Fillion. I didn’t even know anyone else watched that! Seth Green conveyed a story of his most stressful experience”¦ on Hollywood Game Night. A great idea was brought up to have Alan Tudyk guest star on Fillion’s TV show Castle as a competing author following a different detective.

When an audience member asked them about fantasy pets, Felicia Day and Seth totally lost it over a cosplay Daenerys with chihuahua dragons. Tudyk and Day then got into a hilarious back and forth about how much they collectively die on screen.

“Oh you die a lot?” – Tudyk
“Have you seen what I’ve done? I’m the female Sean Bean!” – Day

Tudyk was asked for his favorite part of Con Man and he just said working with all his friends, including the Firefly family”¦ including Joss Whedon!

A fan told Fillion how much he loves him, and says they want a pic of him up close for the background on his phone. Seth Green leaps to the job, takes the pic, and posts it to Instagram tagging the guy, (Jake).

In the end, Tudyk genuinely loves the fans. They helped make Serenity the movie, and with Con Man, raised $1 million in a single 24-hour span. This was one of the most fun panels I attended at NYCC this year. The camera shook from laughter and everyone was hysterical. Con Man is available on Vimeo. Make sure you watch and maybe we can see more great stuff the Firefly gang on actual TV.

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[All photos by Dr. Zaius for Geeks Of Doom.]