Buffy the Vampire Slayer sequel series nearing pilot order at Hulu, SMG returning!

[NileQT87]

I wasn't suggesting the kids in an acting role, but as nothing more than a doable (and very subtle for the non-fans) nod where they're basically background extras in a school hallway or classroom scene. Non-speaking roles. I wouldn't expect more. Just a cute nod to passing the torch. Bella has already been in a classroom scene in Bones.

The other point is that we have several actors whose teenage/adult children are the target audience and demographic of the probable new show lead.

Having Buffy play a mom to someone in this age bracket, whether Buffy has a child of her own to fill out the new Scoobies or is only playing Giles (a character who essentially became Buffy's surrogate father) to this new Slayer, would be an interesting dynamic.

One of young Buffy's stated fears was becoming her own single mother. And if you actually watch Bad Eggs a little closer (underrated for some of its character content!), you'd realize that Buffy only backpedals on the idea of having children in the future when she realizes Angel can't (until he could), despite the several times afterwards that she attempts to deny even considering that future for a Slayer with a short and violent lifespan.

I was also pointing out that Angel's own story was him playing a paternal role frequently (with an explicit desire for family of his own stated multiple times) long before he became a father in the story. Long before Connor being a mirror to his own relationship with a disapproving father watching a self-destructing son, he acted as a sounding board to Buffy for the things she couldn't talk to Giles, Willow or Joyce about, took Faith under his tutelage with wisdom borne of having already been through it and was pretty much the father to his whole group who were notably with failed parental relations outside of Fred with the responsibility of putting the roof over their heads.

I think the idea of Buffy's story including motherhood is a natural one and matches where SMG is in her own life. And as I said, it would save the character from a 20+-year arrested development that turns her into another dystopian Logan rehash (seems to be the rage with the Reddit fanfiction being peddled) with the failure to create a life for herself.

I will be heartbroken if Buffy is anything like the General Buffy concept we had to put up with in the horrendous comics for so many years, which is my #1 reason why I want the Slayer spell pared back down to two plus this new teenage Slayer, followed by the lack of special status that would be robbed from this new character who deserves to be important in her own story. The Chosen One is a lonely role. Both Buffy and Angel went from being unique to having their exclusive club crashed. As we saw with Angel, that meant that the dangling carrot of a reward and a light at the end of the tunnel might not even be his (the Shanshu), in spite of all the other prophecies connected pointing directly at him. And with Buffy, her replacements were more of a cautionary tale of Slayers who were her opposite mirror reflections. Those are interesting stories, but the Potentials-turned-Slayers were putting Buffy in the unfortunate position of being the leader of her own master race with some very unfortunate moral questions due to the indiscriminate nature of the spell and free will.

One part of the franchise mythology I think has been under-served is the Watchers' Council. I'd love to have a deeper look into the Council's history and workings (Giles' past could be explored as flashbacks and as a nod to the unproduced Ripper series, or surviving remnants of the Council could come to reassert control over this new Slayer), despite being mostly wiped out by the First. With Buffy, herself already at odds with the Watchers beyond the one she saw more as a father (her official split being specifically about their unwillingness to cure her vampire lover), you'd have her facing becoming them. And with Angel, he was friends with one who pretty much did the thing the Council was most horrified by: Wesley being friends and working for a vampire after failing at being Faith's Watcher when he was book smart, but not street smart (which was a mirror to Giles at the time, but that got turned on its head to the point of self-destruction--Wesley was also used as a mirror to Angel, particularly with his father issues). The new Slayer would have to navigate knowledge about the Slayers and Watchers of old with the fact that those still living long enough to become the new mentors are the ones who broke just about every rule of the old system.

 

[Mr Trick]

@Btvs fan there’s a balance to be had. With something like this you need a certain amount of tie-ins to the old show and cameos. Because many of the characters are human I don’t see any harm in dropping in and seeing where they are now. Because it’s been more than 20 years there are things you can do with them. Like I said I wouldn’t go too over board, and would make it more about the new characters but that’s me.

A good model is Twin Peaks The Return. That brought back most of the old characters (where possible), but didn’t feel the need to give all of them plots. Some of it was just dropping in on old characters (and who wouldn’t want to see Dr. Jacoby shovel the shit for $9.99?😂). It also added new ones and expanded on the universe of the original show. That is more the road to go down than that shite recent Dexter show.

 

[NileQT87]

While I am utterly loathe to bring back Andrew Wells, the one dangling plot thread hanging over the end of both shows is his role in probably going behind Buffy's back (with or without the orders of Giles) and lying in AtS season 5. Buffy's role in those actions desperately needs to be absolved. Andrew is the obvious amoral scapegoat, but Giles refusing to help save Fred's life is another problem that suggests either his involvement or someone using his voice.

Then there's the dangling plot thread of who sent the glamoured robots (Andrew's connection to robotics genius Warren rings an alarm bell) who had intimate knowledge of Roger Wyndam-Price's psychological abuse of his son since childhood, which either suggests who sent the robots had access to abandoned Watchers' Council records from the blown up remnants of the organization, or had access to Roger himself to program an assassin aimed at eliminating Angel by first taking his free will and using the shame of Wesley's loyalty to do it.

We know from the Council's wetworks goons that they were absolutely willing to kill a rogue Slayer (Faith) and Angel with strong animus for Wesley's shame upon the Council as a collateral target. The Council was also dealing with their refusal to help save Angel as the very reason Buffy fired them all in that period. Giles, of course, had lost his job for not complying with the Cruciamentum.

This also brings up Andrew (on orders of Giles with the support of Buffy, or so he says) taking Dana. If there were elements of the Council still working (the intimate knowledge of Wesley's family issues strongly support this), the plan would be to kill her if what they were trying to do to Faith was any indication. Angel (and Wesley) were far more equipped to deal with Dana in a way that wasn't a wetworks execution. While Buffy reached the point of wanting Faith dead against Angel's wishes, I don't think she'd be quite as cavalier about what was likely a rogue Slayer wetworks operation--or worse, the acquisition of an insane, violent assassin to set off.

And if Andrew had something to do with the robots, then Buffy even more likely wasn't working against Angel for reason of being at Wolfram & Hart to the point of trying to murder him with a willingness to endanger all of his friends (note the Roger robot also had a gun pointed at Fred's head, which was the point at which Wesley fired, fully believing it was his own father).

The one and only part of the comics that I'd support keeping is absolving Buffy of dating the Immortal, who clearly had not changed a bit since he was playing games with Angelus and Spike by sleeping with fully soulless and murderous Darla and Drusilla, and was still playing the same petty game with Buffy or her decoy against the ensouled versions. Whatever it is, unless that's resolved as being a decoy after all, it made Buffy look awful and definitely not moving on in a healthy way. Lying Andrew (backed by intimidating teams of baby Slayers who probably weren't taking their orders from Buffy either) is once again the probable answer.

I think dealing with the Watchers' Council is a natural progression from what we last heard about Buffy or what purported to be her team under her orders, but almost all coming from the least-reliable source. Giles' voice on the phone is the one problem with these interactions that can't be cleanly blamed on Andrew. Working with Robin to eliminate Spike was another thing that had already begun to put him at odds with Buffy (believing he knew what was best for her), and if he had done the same against Angel in this series of events (regardless of whether he used Wolfram & Hart to justify what looks more like potential revenge), then that's a very serious corruption and betrayal of Buffy.

If Buffy was betrayed by the new world of many Slayers she helped create with a rogue Council working for their own interests and betrayals by Andrew and possibly Giles, then that would certainly explain why she has lost her mission if the Reddit rumors are true.

 

[NileQT87]

Did David Boreanaz hint that he actually wants to revisit the Buffyverse?

David Boreanaz Says It Would Be Interesting to 'Tap Back' into the Fantasy World of 'Angel' and 'Buffy'

'SEAL Team' actor David Boreanaz reflects on his first roles and their cult followings, noting that the TV show 'Angel' was underrated when it came to the mainstream

people.com

A poster over at Buffy Forums posted this People interview from August 2024, and given what we now know about the other cast members being aware of SMG bringing back the show for a while (it's been in the works for three years)... Was this what he was hinting at? Most interestingly is him explicitly positing what Angel would be doing now.

I'm heartened by the fact that he always sticks up for AtS being underrated.

We know where SMG's heart is in regards to the part of BtVS she was most invested in. Her daughter Charlotte apparently agreed with her mother in favoring Buffy with Angel when they did their watch.

Fans of the cult-favorite vampire dramas Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff Angel have long been clamoring for reboots — and series star David Boreanaz, 55, agrees that it would be interesting to explore that world again.

"You have the cult world that loves Buffy and Angel, they love the fantasy world, they love the portals and the makeup and all the fantasy worlds," Boreanaz tells PEOPLE.

"It's definitely something that would be interesting to tap back into, that world, that environment," he adds.

Of course, that doesn't mean it's in the works.

"I don't know what the character Angel would be [doing now]," Boreanaz says. One thing he does know is that the series he led was complex and interesting, and he understands why it still has such a big fanbase.

"Angel I think is still one of those shows that is still underrated," he says. "It was a very adult-themed exploration of action stuff. Both of those shows will live on."

Boreanaz, who is wrapping up the final season of his military drama SEAL Team (season 7 premiered on August 11 on Paramount+), is candid about how lucky he is to have landed Buffy in the first place. After studying at Ithica College (where he says he was a long-haired hippie who loved music festivals), he moved to Los Angeles to pursue his dreams.

He was mostly doing background acting before landing the role of Buffy's love interest Angel — and he says the way he booked it wasn't exactly conventional.

"I got the character Angel through [casting director] Marcia Schulman. My first meeting with her was an hour and 30 minutes, and we mostly talked about Italian restaurants in New York." he recalls with a laugh. "Eventually she she was like, 'Well, should we read the slides?' " He got the job, he thinks, partly because of his interest in connecting with others on a real level.

"My instinct for everything I do is, I show up and I show up as whole as I can," he says.

That includes being committed to his roles. To play his SEAL Team character Jason Hayes, he stayed physically fit and notes that there were no shortcuts — especially since he was working with former elite soldiers, either as consultants or working as crew.

"I don't take that lightly," he says of honoring the devotion of the men and women who worked for the military.

"I take it as inspiration, I take it as motivation, it's discipline. Listen, the show was very difficult to do. It was not an easy show. And when I say that, I mean you had to have the physicality."

He says that after seven seasons, he couldn't handle the intensity and he knew it was time to call it quits.

Boreanaz adds that he's had four MRIs in the past four months: "It gets to a point where your body's not moving like it used to!"

 

[ILLYRIAN]

Yes, that is all well and good but will the real star of the show be back for a cameo spot, and when I say the real star
I do mean, of course Julie Benz!

Not that I'm biased or anything.

 

[NileQT87]

Hey, it's me. I'd be all over a Dangel(us) flashback. Would need some digital touch-ups though. I would be ecstatic if we could see Angel and Connor together again. Darla might be dead numerous times over, but she's still Connor's mother.

The Shanshu is far easier to explain than going to all that effort of de-aging (and easier on DB's aging body catching up with him, as noted in that interview)!

I would be very happy if the new writers actually remember any of the plot points from AtS ever happened. If DB comes back, he might actually remind them that it exists. I would be far happier with this third show if it were a continuation of both shows before it.