I've been around for the two previous announcements of a revival for the Buffyverse. The first time it seemed highly doubtful, but I was hopeful. It did not work out, especially with the drama surrounding Joss. The second time, it appeared to be more likely to happen, however the news and rumors eventually just stopped. Interestingly, it's around the same time (three years ago) that SMG seems to have been contacted by her mentor. I suppose that they came to the conclusion that SMG would have to be involved in some form for the project to finally get off the ground and gather enough publicity to have a pilot/show greenlit.
I've always been mostly optimistic about a revival as long as it was a continuation and not a remake of the story with new actors playing the original characters. I wanted, and I want, the Buffyverse to be expanded upon as it is such an awesome fictional universe that deserves to be explored again. Now, with SMG backing this project and agreeing to play the role of Buffy again, I'm even more excited for the potential of delving into the Buffyverse again.
Imo, SMG being at the core of the project means that Joss will stay away and that many of the original actors are more likely to come back. I'm thinking specifically about David Boreanaz who has a really good relationship with Sarah. I can see him, Seth Green, James Marsters, and a few others coming back for smaller roles. With the de-aging process and modern prosthetics, I can totally see a possible workaround for David and James to reprise their roles in some fashion. However, if these two come back, they will HAVE TO give us some explanation for what canonically happened after 'Not Fade Away'. Sadly, this almost guarantees that most of what happened in 'After the Fall' would have to be dropped, because although I can see David and James coming back, I don't expect them to have long arcs or be main characters.
Speaking of canon, I would expect them to just consider Buffy S1-S7 and Angel S1-S5 as canon material. Nothing else will be seen that way, although they may throw a few easter eggs that comic readers will get. There's no way they retcon the events of 'Chosen', let alone erase all of S6 and S7 as some posters here have mentioned. That'd be ridiculous. You have to remember that as much as you might not have liked a certain season or a specific storyline, plenty of other fans have enjoyed those to varied extents. They won't be playing favorites, and I assume the story will pick up 15-20 years after 'Chosen', and we will follow a younger Slayer, who will ultimately meet Buffy (and maybe some of the old cast).
As a few others have said, the difficulty here will be to juggle between the old cast and the new cast. The new characters will have to be just as fleshed out and interesting as the original crew, as we don't want SMG and whoever else comes back to be used only to prop up an unimpressive new group of individuals. More so, I would want a few of the returning characters to have their own satisfying arc too. Not just cameos for the sake of it. But yea, for this show to succeed, the quality of the writing has to be just as good for the new characters as for the old. If not, I could see fans turning on the new characters and clamoring for the original cast to be the focus of the continuation.
That's about what I can come up with for my first impressions to the news. I only heard about this a few days ago. If it's not clear from everything else I've said, I couldn't be more hyped. The Buffyverse coming back and being expanded upon for old fans, but also discovered by the new generation is up there as one of my biggest wishes. I don't think there's anything else media-related that could get me more excited. Thank you to Sarah for the wonderful words she had for the fans and the character that made her an icon.
I'll be certain to follow the upcoming news concerning this revival project. Now I'd just like to respond to a few posts I've seen in this thread!
Even if a pilot does get made, it doesn't mean it'll be getting a season. So yeah I'm definitely in the wait and see camp.
It's almost guaranteed that they will get a season. You realize we're talking about one of the most impactful shows in TV history, right? With its leading star coming back. This is bigger than most other properties that have been remade/rebooted in the past decade.
The Buffyverse is also ripe with possibilities for spinoffs and derived products. It's an intellectual property that's been sitting there for over 20 years, not profiting much of anyone. This is a gold mine in the right hands. You can get both the 90s/00s audience and the newer generation too.
I do wonder where they would start a new series from. After season seven? Or after season five? I know that season seven might be considered more logical, but I personally think it would be better if they acted as if the last two seasons hadn't happened. Neither was a season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and neither was a season about Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
And then there is the question as to whether they will have any of the other cast involved. Going by Slayers, quite a few of the originals would be willing to participate (and if you ignores S6&7 you don't need AU versions of some of them), but anyone who is a vampire is going to look distinctly odd for a changeless being - that I read is why the Annointed One got killed off, because he was ageing - and if you have JM there will be a vocal minority wanting more of the toxic and abusive relationship from hell.
They're not going to cut two seasons from the original show... These had important/key storylines for many of the characters. I get that you might be in the camp of "I hate S6 and S7", but as I've said up there, plenty of people enjoyed those.
I’m more enthralled with the idea of a show about a new Slayer or Slayers, with SMG being involved off screen, rather than seeing her as Buffy again, to be honest.
After the comics I mostly dread what they’ll come up with for her character
May I ask why you worry about seeing SMG reprise her role in these conditions?
As for the comics, it's not going to be the same writers, and I don't think they'll even be considered.
NB you can basically exclude, Alyson might be on board, as might ASH. Eliza is retired from acting. We may need to have an AU if we want to see Cordy and Anya. I'd love to see Oz and Riley back.
The biggest hurdle here is Angel and Spike - first off, the actors have aged and can't play immortal beings (please God, no poor excuses like, 'drinking animal blood has aged them'). And second, my concern is if they somehow work out a way to bring them on the show, the focus is going to be another shipping war, and I don't want the series (original or new) reduced to, "Oooh, who does Buffy pick!?"
If SMG is more of a guest role, there might not be such a push to have cast members from the original series to appear.
As others have said, I'm not fully invested in this until they're either shooting on set, or there's a trailer.
At least 2 or 3 old cast members from the original shows have to play a significant role, imo. I would expect Buffy to act as a mentor for the new cast, but the other returning characters wouldn't have to be part of the Core Four. It could be characters from
Angel or it could be characters that had smaller roles in the original shows.
There are a lot of possibilities!
As for the vampires, as I said they can work around the age constraint with the new technologies and/or making one of them human. Honestly, I'd be ready to bet that at least one of them will appear in some form. Most likely David.
Thought I'd pop back in when I saw this news trending. Heard it all before but with SMG involved this is the closest to something concrete actually happening.
Think anyone worrying about who's coming back is wasting their time / will be disappointed. This won't be Buffy Season 8 or Buffy Season 13. This will be a new set of characters and they'll be the focus. Sarah and other potential cameos will give it credibility but they're not going to be the focus.
I agree with you that SMG being part of this is the closest we've gotten to a revival becoming reality. With the people surrounding her on this project, I don't think this is going to go away. It might take a few years, but I expect the revival will happen. Imo, it was inevitable with such a popular intellectual property that the Buffyverse would live again someday.
As for past characters not having major roles in this continuation, I wouldn't be so confident. As I've pointed out, it doesn't have to be major characters from the original shows. Lesser known actors who had smaller roles back then could come back and have a larger part to play. This would be fascinating.
Strangely, my only concern is the format of episode. I love 22 episodes of 40 minutes per season. I know I belong to the old school but series nowadays with 7-10 episodes of 1hour30 the episode.. It just gets on my nerves and sometimes it’s because of that I don’t even finish the series.
No way the revival is 22 episodes per season. That's in the past. I could see this getting more than 10, though, if it isn't hyper-serialized.
Everyone talks about Whedon but I wonder if any of the other writers will be involved ?
Petrie and Espenson are known side kicks and went with him to work on the Nevers. Without Whedon will they work on this ?
The one highlight of Season 7 was Drew Goddard and will he be back ?
I definitely would like some of the writers from the original shows to come back. I want the characteristic Buffy speech to be there too.
And would Wesley return with her?
Well, Wesley is dead in universe. He would have been a cool returning character to have (Alexis needs to be able to show off his acting skills again), but bringing a bunch of past characters back to life would be too much, imo. This was one of the main issues in
Supernatural. When characters constantly come back to life, the story loses most of its dramatic impact.
I love y'all but come on! Don't be such downers. This is so exciting! This is the first time Buffy has come back WITH Sarah involved. And I think that's a really important distinction from all the other times...
I think this has the potential (get it?) to rock. And the world needs a Slayer now more than ever!!!
I'm all in with you!
You have to keep in mind that most fans who really loved the shows have left BB over the years. I've spoken to a few since the news dropped and they're super excited about the news.
😀
With that said, I can get the people in here who are hesitant to get their hopes up because we've been told a revival was going to happen in the past... two times. With no results. Still, it seems a lot more likely to happen with everything SMG said recently.
I wonder if we might see Oz back. Seth said he wished he'd been contacted about the Audible drama last year because he would've done it, and he's also still close to Sarah. She has done tons of uncredited voicework for him on Robot Chicken.
Definitely a strong possibility with SMG involved.
I can't see DB doing even a cameo of Angel, he's always said he doesn't look back on projects, and replaying Angel would be a definite look back. Even if they deaged him to appear as he was. The most I can see them doing is using an old clip as a flashback.
I would have never expected him to participate in anything related to a revival before, but with SMG reprising her role and being heavily involved in this project... it's definitely likely to happen at some point.
Lol if the paycheck is decent enough he won't care, he will be there. He made a living doing the Convention Circuit, he wouldn't say no.
Again people are talking about cameos and member berries.
Sarah is only a reoccurring character and is the Watcher/exposition role primarily.
Honestly the big issue will be how its just 1 Slayer again ? . What happened to all the others called.
Are they still alive ? If so why has Buffy abandoned them. She did the same in the comics and it was bad there too but a TV series will need a concrete reason than her working at Starbucks.
If they are not alive, why weren't more called and again what happened ?
The creator who did this was apparently overwhelmed doing the Eternals because of to many characters. So I hope she's learnt from that
I'm sorry but from everything I've read, Buffy is not going to just be some cameo every now and then. She will have an important role. Plus, with the amazing cast of characters from the original shows, we will get some of them back.
😉
And who said it's only going to be one Slayer again? That would make no sense and would be a massive retcon to one of the biggest plot points in the original show.
It's started already......
In just about every article I've seen about this, the comments section has degenerated into a mass argument over which Vampire 'must' come back to be with Buffy!
I've even seen some suggesting that they don't really need Buffy at all....as long as Spike is the main character!
Please, please writers. Ignore the rabid Spufflings & Bangelites. NO returning Vampires!
Note: If I was one of the writers I would be tempted to add a digitally de-aged Spike to turn up right at the start of the first Episode only to be dusted by the new Slayer before he can say a word 😈
Spike has to appear at least once.
😉
I'm curious about Dawn and Connor.
I can already guess the Bangel talk barely touched on Connor, if at all.
Vincent Kartheiser is one member of the old cast that could definitely come back and play a larger role in this series. I'm not so sure about Michelle.
At one point, Charlotte Prinze and Bella Boreanaz were actually friends (per a comment made around the time of their poolside vacation crashing). Same age (15). They both look really mature now!
They'd be a fun cameo for a school scene.
Satyana Denisof is likewise close in age (all born in 2009--Bella and Charlotte were born only 20 days apart and Satyana was earlier that year in March on her mother's birthday) and looking quite grown up. Keeva Denisof looks like she could play Willow in a flashback. I wonder if Alyson Hannigan and Alexis Denisof's continued closeness to Joss Whedon might still be an issue, though. I know Charisma Carpenter deleted follows to a lot of people still connected to him.
Nice pictures! I can definitely see one of those kids having a role in this revival. As long as the acting is worthy!
SMG appearing in just a cameo as a passing of the torch type thing (if that's what it is) feels right. She had a full run as the Slayer and has nothing more to do in the role. My guess is she's only interested in smaller-cameo type roles nowadays anyway.
I think SMG could still do a lot with the character of Buffy. Your character and personality doesn't stop evolving at 23/24 years old. I'd want to see how she has matured and what it's like to be a Slayer past 40. Has any other Slayer ever made it past 30?
Him and Critical Drinker (Scottish guy)are YouTube reviewers. They've been on the Piers Morgan show.
They're very right wing and hate the Hollywood "woke" agenda
He's also a big Buffy fan
The cognitive dissonance on display when those guys compare feminist shows like
Buffy and
Xena to the ones of the past two decades is hilarious and instructive. 🤣
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."
Wait, are you trying to tell me that you don't expect this revival to have a bunch of young and beautiful actors/actresses? It's almost certainly going to try to appeal to the current young adult audience.
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.
This is such a great post. Pretty much agree with everything you said there. It's criminal that the Buffyverse has been sitting in a dusty corner for so long. It's about time it comes back in the spotlight. It's almost guaranteed to be controversial because of the current political climate, which will give it a ton of publicity, and will bring in old and new fans. I've got a niece who just discovered the original show a few months back and she's excited about this revival almost as much as I am. 😂
