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

[AlphaFoxtrot]

Well, to be fair, Chole Zao is a fine arthouse director whose career was completely destroyed by Disney assigning her Eternals. Nothing in her skillset says action comedy. If I had to bet, Disney has a multi-project deal with her, a Buffy revival seems relatively harmless to burn through those.

Re: Forty is the new Fifty; Have you seen Jennifer Love Hewitt recently?

In truth, a large part of Buffy's appeal was "youth and beauty," getting to watch attractive people do fun things together, certainly, it's the cornerstone of advertising, and the WB/CW would always cast very attractive people in their shows long after Buffy left the airwaves. I mean, this isn't to downplay Sarah's skill as an actress, she was wonderful. But, it remains to be just how of the audience was just treating the show as something to watch after "Unhappily Ever After."

 

[famicommander]

George Foreman was the lineal heavyweight boxing champion of the world from age 45 until he was beaten at age 48 by Shannon Briggs.

If a normal dude can be the best fighter in the world at 48, I think a literal super hero should be fine at age 47. Especially when she's essentially playing Giles, who was in fact in his 40s during the original series.

 

[Btvs fan]

George Foreman was the lineal heavyweight boxing champion of the world from age 45 until he was beaten at age 48 by Shannon Briggs.

If a normal dude can be the best fighter in the world at 48, I think a literal super hero should be fine at age 47. Especially when she's essentially playing Giles, who was in fact in his 40s during the original series.

So was James Marsters, so he'd be in his 60s now.
But nearly all the cast were older than there character ages. Wasn't Charisma 28 or 29 and she was playing a 16yr old.
It's how they got away with Buffy and Angel getting together. As the Actress was the age of an Adult rather than as a school girl.
The only exceptions were Eliza Dushku who was 17 when she started and Michelle Trachtenberg who was 14. They even moved up her character age to that 14 for her.

Post automatically merged: Feb 15, 2025

Well, to be fair, Chole Zao is a fine arthouse director whose career was completely destroyed by Disney assigning her Eternals. Nothing in her skillset says action comedy. If I had to bet, Disney has a multi-project deal with her, a Buffy revival seems relatively harmless to burn through those.

Re: Forty is the new Fifty; Have you seen Jennifer Love Hewitt recently?

In truth, a large part of Buffy's appeal was "youth and beauty," getting to watch attractive people do fun things together, certainly, it's the cornerstone of advertising, and the WB/CW would always cast very attractive people in their shows long after Buffy left the airwaves. I mean, this isn't to downplay Sarah's skill as an actress, she was wonderful. But, it remains to be just how of the audience was just treating the show as something to watch after "Unhappily Ever After."

Iv not seen Eternals but urm isn't Buffy an Action Comedy too ?

 

[NotASlayer]

Well, to be fair, Chole Zao is a fine arthouse director whose career was completely destroyed by Disney assigning her Eternals. Nothing in her skillset says action comedy. If I had to bet, Disney has a multi-project deal with her, a Buffy revival seems relatively harmless to burn through those.

Re: Forty is the new Fifty; Have you seen Jennifer Love Hewitt recently?

In truth, a large part of Buffy's appeal was "youth and beauty," getting to watch attractive people do fun things together, certainly, it's the cornerstone of advertising, and the WB/CW would always cast very attractive people in their shows long after Buffy left the airwaves. I mean, this isn't to downplay Sarah's skill as an actress, she was wonderful. But, it remains to be just how of the audience was just treating the show as something to watch after "Unhappily Ever After."

Women in particular seem to get hit by being considered "too old." A man is more likely to get away with age, but woman are thrown on the scrapheap. If they don't try and keep their youth, they are considered too old, and if they do, they are mutton dressed as lamb or are attacked if they have cosmetic surgery. Even though there are a heck of a lot of attractive older women. The thumbnail of that video gives me the impression that the person is offended that a woman in her 40s - and he is clearly portraying her as being older than that - could still have value in this sort of programme. Giles never suffered from that.

 

[AlphaFoxtrot]

What I am saying is, she doesn't have action comedy in her resume. It's not like, The Russo Brothers were hired to do Winter Soldier based on their work on a paintball episode of Community. Joss was hired for Avengers based on his work on Buffy, Angel, Firefly and Cabin. They weren't A list directors at the time, but they had backgrounds that proved to be useful. If you want to be skeptical of her on the basis that she has no experience in making anything Buffy like, I think that's fair. It's still a better idea than putting her in charge of Eternals, which is frankly the worst thing since putting an documentary filmmaker in charge of "A Wrinkle in Time."

As an aside, If you really care about promoting non-white male talent, you wouldn't stick them in job positions where they were almost guaranteed to fail. I mean, I know everything has to a big budget film these days, but surely you can produce a BASEketball until she knows what she's doing.

Re; Hollywood doesn't really want actresses, it hires beautiful women, then teaches them to act. It doesn't have to be true, we wouldn't be having this conversation about Diana Riggs, we may need not have this conversation about Sarah.

Regarding men, It's a false comparison, Men don't get hired because of how taunt their skin looks in a halter top, first. Men can lose roles based on weight gain and hair loss, second. But overall, it's a different game. Old age is hateful and punishes us in different ways.

 

[thetopher]

Re: Nerdrotic; the guy's not my cup of tea but he has every right to be skeptical about the next IP to be sacrificed the rebooted Buffy, he's a comic store owner/fan who seen the comic industry be mostly decimated by activists-masquerading-as-writers for over a decade. Hell, I'd be pissed and a little hateful too.

The Critical Drinker is much milder and not really right-wing, he's just against the 'Progressively More Stupid' (PMS) writers who have seemingly infiltrated every creative industry from movies, to video games, to TTRPG's and ruin them with their awful, deranged world-view writing. but as far as I can see he can appreciate a well-told story when he sees it.


The comments about SMG's age are unfair in the sense that they're irrelevant regarding her acting ability or her being a significant draw for older fans...but I think its a valid concern when it comes to stunt-work/fightyness; as I remember Sarah sustained quite a few injuries during the show's original run, not sure she's eager to re-visit sprains, bruises and cracked ribs in her in 40's. So limiting the 'physical-ness' of her presence might be a factor.

Yeah, maybe it should be. The show is supposed to be about new characters for a new generation. Sure, I'd like some nods to the predecessors, some easter eggs or teased hints about the stories told in the intervening years, but not too much of the fandom/shipper baggage. There's many ways they go with this but usually 'less is more' is best so the newer stories have a chance to stand on their own, using the old stories to add weight if and when needed.
Also let's hope they don't go 'subversive' and have Buffy be a cowardly, grumpy hermit-woman that has been crushed under the weight of her own legend or some b*llshit.

 

[AlphaFoxtrot]

Re: Stunts; If they are setting up the show correctly, Sarah shouldn't be doing a lot of stunt work, that should be on the younger actors. I would say, she should be doing as much work as ASH was doing in the original series. But again, this depends on how much acting she does on the series. She might be a supporting character, akin to Kevin Conroy on Batman Beyond, she might be a Pilot Cameo, like Admiral McCoy or Connor MacLeod, or she could make the entire show about her political obsessions and dogs, like Picard.

I'm sorry, Picard is so easy to make fun of, it's like five different series. Seriously, why does the Federation keep making slave circuit technology?

But all rhetoric aside, I don't really expect Sarah to still look 19, even if she still looks great and could be very fit, and I don't really want her to do extensive stunt work at an age in which most female pro-wrestlers have long retired, and almost all dancers have long ceased performing. I think there's an age appropriate Buffy to be explored, although I do think it would be funny if she tried to recreate Bad Girls with mom energy.

 

[thrasherpix]

Perhaps Buffy will start off burned out, and it's her trying to find her spark again. One thing I disliked about the Buffy series is that the characters spent a lot of time learning the same lessons again just one season or so later, but if Buffy had decades of Slaying and now with a group of Slayers (who I doubt would be as worshiping of her as in the comics), I could see the character being burned out. This could help explain Angel trying to help her find her spark again.

Maybe Buffy needs to find it because of a new extreme threat which introduces some Slayers who need help (and may be burned out themselves, though perhaps they have a character like Buffy in the early seasons which irritates Buffy who doesn't want to be reminded of that).

I'm just trying to think of a way they could make an interesting story rather than have her being all perky with Buffyspeak (which Joss will no longer be writing for them). If they think they should just give us the same as early seasons of Buffy then they could just remaster it again rather than making a new season.

At least there's reason to hope that THIS time they don't intend to disrespect the series and its fans in destroying it by claiming to rebooting it but actually making it completely different so they should've just made an original show in the first place rather than destroy another IP.

 

[Btvs fan]

Re: Stunts; If they are setting up the show correctly, Sarah shouldn't be doing a lot of stunt work, that should be on the younger actors. I would say, she should be doing as much work as ASH was doing in the original series. But again, this depends on how much acting she does on the series. She might be a supporting character, akin to Kevin Conroy on Batman Beyond, she might be a Pilot Cameo, like Admiral McCoy or Connor MacLeod, or she could make the entire show about her political obsessions and dogs, like Picard.

I'm sorry, Picard is so easy to make fun of, it's like five different series. Seriously, why does the Federation keep making slave circuit technology?

But all rhetoric aside, I don't really expect Sarah to still look 19, even if she still looks great and could be very fit, and I don't really want her to do extensive stunt work at an age in which most female pro-wrestlers have long retired, and almost all dancers have long ceased performing. I think there's an age appropriate Buffy to be explored, although I do think it would be funny if she tried to recreate Bad Girls with mom energy.

How many stunts did she do on the original show anyway. Even in training montages in the early seasons you can clearly see its not her as Buffy grows in size like she's taken a Mario Mushroom.
Hell that was one of the issues that Joss fired her Stunt double after S4 and the replacement was crap (she'd do that ridiculous Cartwheel kick that looked awful)

Picard S1 and 2 was Kurtzman Trek. That's all you need to know. Even Picard S3 that wasn't Kurtzman and while better was still largely nostalgia bait and had more endings than Lord of the Rings.

Perhaps Buffy will start off burned out, and it's her trying to find her spark again. One thing I disliked about the Buffy series is that the characters spent a lot of time learning the same lessons again just one season or so later, but if Buffy had decades of Slaying and now with a group of Slayers (who I doubt would be as worshiping of her as in the comics), I could see the character being burned out. This could help explain Angel trying to help her find her spark again.

Maybe Buffy needs to find it because of a new extreme threat which introduces some Slayers who need help (and may be burned out themselves, though perhaps they have a character like Buffy in the early seasons which irritates Buffy who doesn't want to be reminded of that).

I'm just trying to think of a way they could make an interesting story rather than have her being all perky with Buffyspeak (which Joss will no longer be writing for them). If they think they should just give us the same as early seasons of Buffy then they could just remaster it again rather than making a new season.

At least there's reason to hope that THIS time they don't intend to disrespect the series and its fans in destroying it by claiming to rebooting it but actually making it completely different so they should've just made an original show in the first place rather than destroy another IP.

From what Iv read its meant to be like a Logan/Conra Kai thing. Buffys Angry and depressed over doing this all her life and she agrees to train the new Slayer.

 

[NotASlayer]

I would expect Buffy to be more in a mentor role than anything else. However, any Slayer that has (mostly) survived the role for three decades is going to be pretty scary to face in combat. Which is one reason I suggested that maybe the sheer amount of damage she has suffered over the years has slowed her down. Though having seen Mother Superion kick ass with a walking stick in Warrior Nun, even injury doesn't necessarily mean someone isn't dangerous.

 

[Mr Trick]

What makes me laugh is there’s an hysterical over them announcing a new Buffy show. It’s hardly surprising we always knew that with Disney owning it this day would come. Of course their milking the IP, but as long as you have the right people involved it can still be good.

 

[famicommander]

Buffy was never meant to be a one-off IP in the first place. They did the movie, they did two TV shows, there were plans for various other shows, there are decades worth of comics, there are dozens of novels, an audio drama, video games, board games... and most of that was long before Disney took ownership of it.

Buffy is an entire universe (actually a multiverse, but whatever). It's not just the story of one character, it's a gigantic canvas for countless stories of different types like the Star Wars universe, DC, Marvel, etc. There is such a diverse set of characters, concepts, locations, etc that it begs for continued exploration. You can jump all around the timeline, to alternate dimensions, different places around the world, focus on different characters or different categories of characters. We have vampires, werewolves, witches, robots, aliens, innumerable types of demons, shady government organizations, cults, interdimensional evil law firms.

Whether Disney bought it or not there was always going to be another Buffy show or movie eventually, with or without Joss, with or without Sarah.

 

[fauxindigo]

Buffy was never meant to be a one-off IP in the first place. They did the movie, they did two TV shows, there were plans for various other shows, there are decades worth of comics, there are dozens of novels, an audio drama, video games, board games... and most of that was long before Disney took ownership of it.

Buffy is an entire universe (actually a multiverse, but whatever). It's not just the story of one character, it's a gigantic canvas for countless stories of different types like the Star Wars universe, DC, Marvel, etc. There is such a diverse set of characters, concepts, locations, etc that it begs for continued exploration. You can jump all around the timeline, to alternate dimensions, different places around the world, focus on different characters or different categories of characters. We have vampires, werewolves, witches, robots, aliens, innumerable types of demons, shady government organizations, cults, interdimensional evil law firms.

Whether Disney bought it or not there was always going to be another Buffy show or movie eventually, with or without Joss, with or without Sarah.

I’m just super happy SMG is coming back. And with a female director at the helm instead of Joss who we owe the original to of course but it can certainly live on without him. I loved Chloe’s movie Nomadland so that already gives me hope.

As for what else we can explore as far as slayers, monsters, characters etc.. what are y’all hoping for ?

I hope we get callbacks to things left open in the original like the swim team Gill Monsters from Go Fish attacking people/a slayer in Hawaii, giant Preying mantis from Teachers Pet in a new school (updated child predator cautionary tale) & Marcie Ross working for the F.B.I.-maybe tie into the initiative; I know people hate the initiative but it makes sense and a lot can be done with it- it’s a big villain. Same goes for the First Evil which they didn’t really defeat in chosen.

Slayers around the world coming together in various ways to fight multiple hell mouths form being opened at the same time. Buffy (smg) comes in officially at the end of season 1 with Willow & Dawn.
I hope Nicholas Brendon is okay because I would like to see Xander again, as well as Faith & Giles.

I want to see more bad slayers- ones that will make Faith & Dana look like a cakewalk. I love seeing how different characters handle power.. how some use it for good and others bad. That’s the biggest thing. It’s about power. 😉Also more witches! Is Alyson coming back as Willow?!God I hope so. Willow was always deserving of & could carry her own spinoff alone! Add in other witches & hell yeah

 

[hoponlilmama]

What makes me laugh is there’s an hysterical over them announcing a new Buffy show. It’s hardly surprising we always knew that with Disney owning it this day would come. Of course their milking the IP, but as long as you have the right people involved it can still be good.

I think the biggest hint something was in the works is when they cancelled the audible series, Slayers.

 

[DeepBlueJoy]

I think the cobra kai approach to coming back to an old universe and doing it well is an interesting one... though I have to admit I've only seen the first 3 seasons of that.... but the men they became were born from the boys they were, but they were no longer boys. i could live with a grown up Buffy who is training and developing the next generation. I really would hope that she isn't still fighting the old watcher's council, though... so many fanfics have gone of this ground in a variety of good ways, (though most didn't involve a much older Buffy)

Anyone attempting the Cobra Kai approach has what I think is a reasonable template... if they don't try to get too 'cute'. A lot of the actors can come back in supporting roles.... though sadly, I think Xander needs to either be off screen or dead. Everything I've heard about Nick Brendon in the last decade has been depressing. I don't think he's in a position to play his old character. Maybe they should ask his twin brother to step in if they want to do 'older Xander' (assuming he's not also an addict with a serious assault record)

 

[Cohen]

Maybe they should ask his twin brother to step in if they want to do 'older Xander' (assuming he's not also an addict with a serious assault record)

That would kind of work, considering he played a version of Xander in “The Replacement”. I’m sure for the right price, Kelly would be down.

 

[famicommander]

Nick would absolutely melt down if his brother took his role.

I'm not saying they shouldn't do it, because screw Nick, but he'd definitely do something stupid/violent/destructive for attention when he heard the news.

 

[Taake]

I’m assuming his twin - who cares for his well being - wouldn’t do that to him. It would also be a bit insulting to him, they’re not the same person, so he wouldn’t be the same Xander. Just because he joined Nick, briefly, on set doesn’t mean he’d be willing to step over him and take his role entirely

 

[NotASlayer]

I also believe that Nick did all the speaking roles for both twins in The Replacement.

 

[AlphaFoxtrot]

My understanding is that Kelly Brendon wasn't actually an actor, and his work on the show was usually in a stand in capacity.

It's sad, Xander is one of the few characters who could come back as some kind of watcher without any problems with aging. But the actor is clearly not well, and needs to put sobriety first.

Is Pike still alive in this continuity? You can recast him, and he's basically Xander, Angel and Spike.

I think Spin offs require a successful core property to properly function. Buffy is 30 years old, that's 55 to 85, that's Back to the future, and the future was ten years ago.