'Firefly' Reunion on 'Castle' Season 8: Kaylee Actress Jewel Staite Joins Nathan Fillion!

Nathan Fillion's long-running ABC show, Castle, has always been filled with references to the actor's sci-fi past as Captain Malcolm Reynolds, and that's prompted a lot of references to cult series Firefly -- and that includes reunions! In the latest news from the crewmembers of Firefly-class vessel Serenity, Kaylee actress Jewel Staite is meeting up with Captain Tightpants!

According to TV Line, the actress who played the adorable and fierce Serenity mechanic is coming to Fillion's new show. She'll be playing the director of a Shakespeare Broadway adaptation, and her star turns up dead.

"There are some great scenes between her, Nathan and the boys," showrunner Terence Paul Winter told the outlet. "She came to play, she was really great."

Staite will appear on the May 2 episode, "Much Ado About Murder."

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She's hardly the first Firefly alum to drop by Castle in the past, with Summer Glau (who played River) being the most recent ahead of Staite. Zoë actress Gina Torres and Jayne actor Adam Baldwin have also had minor roles on Fillion's crime-drama series, with the latter appearing in two episodes as Det. Ethan Slaughter.

Space western series Firefly ran for less than a full season on Fox between 2002 and 2003, and while it failed to get the necessary numbers to keep going on in television when it first ran, it has turned into a cult series ever since, with its fans calling themselves Browncoats. There was a follow-up film in 2005 called Serenity that ended up becoming creator Joss Whedon's first-directed film; the story has continued in comic book form ever since.

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The Firefly cast has found success elsewhere since the show and movie ended: Fillion with his ABC show, Torres co-starring in Suits, Alan Tudyk with a myriad of voice work and this year's Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

Morena Baccarin, who played Inara, has starred in a number of shows in the time since departing Serenity, including V, an Emmy-nominated turn in Homeland and most recently co-starring in Gotham. She was most recently in the Ryan Reynolds-led comic book adaptation, Deadpool.