The former “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” star is definitely not going back to Sunnydale anytime soon, but that doesn’t mean his adventures have ended entirely as the Anthony Stewart Head spin-off series “Ripper” is about to finally come to life.
“It’s more likely than it has been for some time,” Head told SyFy Portal’s Alan Stanley Blair during the recent Collectormania convention in Glasgow, Scotland. “Joss [Whedon], I think I’ve actually got to talk to him to find out if he’s got it. It’s all about Fox now, whether Fox will give permission but the BBC [is] up for it.”
Rumors of “Ripper” featuring Head's character Giles from The WB and UPN series have been in circulation for more than a few years since he departed from “Buffy” at the end of its fifth season almost seven years ago. The original premise of the series was that Giles would come out of retirement in England in order to solve some ghost stories on a more grown-up and sophisticated scale than “Buffy” itself.
Since then however, the project went cold and the proposed two-hour backdoor pilot was never produced. However, Head said the project was finally moving ahead and that producers have received a green light for the series to be developed."
Although Fox may have given a nod to “Ripper,” it’s still a long way off coming to fruition as the go ahead for development is still a few steps short from a commitment to the series. But as Head himself says, it’s a lot more than fans had before.
“They’ve only made an announcement that they’ve given the go ahead for development,” he said. “But that’s a lot further down the line than we were a year ago. It’s a good story, too. [Whedon's] told me … but there is no script.”
And if the prospect of Giles returning to solve paranormal mysteries isn’t enough to get fans excited, there is always the possibility that Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) or Angel (David Borenanz) may pop in for a small cameo, even though the latter is tied up with a new series on Fox called "Bones."
“If all things are equal we’ll do it next summer,” Head later told fans at the event. “It could involve her, it could involve him but it doesn’t hinge on that.”
