Meningitis is one of those things that I, massive history nerd extraordinaire, mostly connects to Tsar Alexander II's two eldest children dying from it and other such causes of death we think of as being so far in the past. But I remember years ago in the Once Upon a Time fandom there was a young fan (French, I think) on Tumblr who was announced as dying from it.
It's a more prominent sign that the show might have a few more of our old faces show up than the false leaks would make us assume. Ones that used to not be on the best terms when they were much younger and with different opinions on Joss Whedon, at that.
I'm still rooting for Bella Boreanaz, Charlotte Prinz and Satyana Denisof (if interested and their parents agreed to it--they were all born the same year) to have some sort of sweet cameo, possibly as background classmates at the new school or something like that. Bella already did a school scene on Bones. Jaden Boreanaz could seriously do a young Liam if they ever wanted to do a brief flashback. Bella and Charlotte were friends once, at least during the period where the Prinzes and Boreanazes were crashing poolside vacations back in the day. SMG mentioned it, along with noting they were the same age.
Charlotte being a huge Angel fan (she was also a Bangel 'shipper) fills me with joy. I seriously wonder if she ever got to fully watch AtS and not just those child-safe BtVS episodes with her mother in them. I don't even know if SMG ever watched AtS back in the day or during Covid (her daughter being a fan might have made it happen). That could seriously affect how she might do the revival if she's fully taking into account the world building of both shows and where they left off. Ditto the showrunners and writers.
Obviously, there's a short list of talents the media would prioritize their excitement over for the revival and these two are definitely at the top, though I still have concerns about Willow needing to be nerfed a bit if the focus is on the younger generation. I also fear the writers being too obsessed with her, even to the point of that obsession being at the lead character's expense, like they were at Boom! David Boreanaz would be second only to Sarah Michelle Gellar due to his career (the way these media outlets see it, not necessarily with the same priorities as the fanbase) and the lead actress' own preference/friendship, though everyone considers him the unlikely return despite his recent comments to the contrary. But Alyson Hannigan is undoubtedly the third.
Regardless, it's clear that the vast majority of the cast has been contacted in some way about the revival over the last four years or at least talked about it amongst themselves even if their characters are even less likely to return (such as being dead). We at least know that Michelle Trachtenberg had been in some sort of talks before her death (it's clear her health issues were worsening over quite a long period, too), so it was never the case that Buffy was the only return character ever planned for a return.
