WIRE Buzz: TZGZ gets Devil-ish for Comic-Con@Home; Flame Con goes virtual; Halloween Horror Nights

We may finally know the truth behind Firefly's premature cancellation. It turns out the Devil may have made Fox do it! In a preview from Friday's Comic-Con@Home panel for SYFY's late-night adult-focused animation block TZGZ, the title character from the upcoming series Devil May Care alerts Firefly alum Alan Tudyk — who also happens to provide the voice for Satan — that he may have had a hand in the demise of the short-lived space opera.

"While you're here, I'm so sorry about Firefly being cancelled," Tudyk-the-Devil tells Tudyk-the-actor with a laugh. "My bad. I couldn't help myself!" That should give a taste for the irreverant tone of the 15-minute animated comedy, which features the ruler of the underworld and his social media coordinator (voiced by Asif Ali) as they attempt to give Hell an image makeover.

Moderated by Baron Vaugh, host of SYFY's The Great Debate, the panel features the creators and voice actors from TZGZ shows Wild Life, Hell Den, Magical Girl Friendship Squad and, of course, Devil May Care, all premiering this fall as part of the 90-minute programming block, which airs Saturday nights at midnight (or thereabouts). The Comic-Con@Home stream begins tonight at 6:00 pm/PT (9:00 pm/ET) on Comic-Con International's YouTube page. You can find all the details here.

As Comic-Con@Home kicks into full gear, another convention has announced it will go virtual this summer. Flame Con, the LGBTQ celebration of all things geeky, announced Friday that they will hold an online event – subtitled Open Flame – on Saturday, August 15.

Flame Con, which was launched in 2015 by Geeks Out, had announced in May that they were cancelling their in-person event, scheduled for August 15-16 in New York City. As steering committee chair Maya Bishop told SYFY Wire in January when initial plans for the 2020 con were released, the event allow guests "to spend a weekend being unabashedly, gleefully themselves in ways they may not get to at other events or in their daily lives. Whether that's through their expressions of queerness or geekiness, or combinations thereof, it's wonderful to see people experience that kind of happiness."

More details about Flame Con: Open Flame will be announced shortly. For information, visit flamecon.org. And Flame Con 2021 has been scheduled for next August 21-22 at the Times Square Sheraton in Manhattan.

Real-life horrors are replacing Halloween horrors in 2020. Universal Orlando Resort and Universal Studios Hollywood have confirmed that the annual Halloween Horror Nights celebrations have been cancelled in both locations for this fall. "This pain will be temporary," the Florida event's Twitter account posted Friday morning. "hhn is forever... and will come again."

Organizers cited the need to focus on daytime operations at the Orlando park, which are operating with enhanced health and safety protocols as the coronavirus pandemic rages in Florida (and in most of the country), while the California location remains closed indefinitely due to local restrictions. This would have been the 30th year of the popular horror-themed event, which features haunted houses, scare zones, attractions and live entertainment. "We look forward to creating an amazing event in 2021," they promised in a statement.