Would they still kill Wesley?

[Wesley Pryce]

Hi,my question is simple. As season five was coming to a close it seems they were going to do the "circle of the black thorn assassination" arc even if they wouldn't have gotten cancelled(correct me if I'm wrong ). So,with this in mind,if Angel hadn't been cancelled and if they were guaranteed a 6th season before the close of season 5, do you think that Wesley Wyndam-Pryce would still have been killed in final episode of the 5th season? Or do you think this was done only because it was the Angel the series climatic finale? Furthermore, if he did live for the big battle at the end of "not fade away",do you think he would survive it? 🙂

 

[white avenger]

I think, though I can't recall any definite source for the recollection, that the "After The Fall" arc that IDW did was supposed to be pretty much what Joss had planned for the televised Season 6 that never happened. If that's so, then Wes being a phantom owned by Wolfram & Hart would still have happened, so, yes, killing him would still have been part of the Season 5 ending.

Nothing says that they couldn't have somehow brought him back to life, or cancelled out his death entirely at the end of that arc when Angel forced W&H to reverse the whole thing. They brought Gunn back, so there's no reason that they couldn't do the same thing with Wes.

Remember, death is only a temporary state in the Buffyverse.

 

[Blaze]

I might be completely wrong about this, but I remember Joss saying he killed Wes because the show got cancelled, and I was under the impression that Wes would have died at the end of s6 instead had it not been cancelled. I might be completely wrong though, but I thought killing him was a last minute decision.

 

[white avenger]

I might be completely wrong about this, but I remember Joss saying he killed Wes because the show got cancelled, and I was under the impression that Wes would have died at the end of s6 instead had it not been cancelled. I might be completely wrong though, but I thought killing him was a last minute decision.

You're probably right, and I just got the seasons wrong.

 

[janas]

Wesley wouldn't have died. This is what says Alexis Denisof.

Wesley undergoes yet another drastic personality change in Angel's fifth season following the death of his love, Fred. Denisof believes that the loss of Fred caused Wesley to become understandably "unbalanced". "By the time we get to the last few episodes, he's got a handle on the grief and is functioning in a more level-headed way," says Denisof. "But underlying it is a huge hole in his heart and it makes it possible for the decision that they make in the final episode. For him emotionally, the stage is set for a life or death battle, possibly for the last time, because at this point, there's nothing more for him to lose." Denisof talked with Whedon about what storylines would have been in place had the television series received another season; Wesley would not have died, and he and Illyria would have featured in an arc in which the transformation of Illyria to Fred would have been extended over many episodes and taken to a "much deeper, darker place" than it briefly was in the late fifth season episode, "The Girl in Question". Denisof continues, "They would have progressed the relationship between Wesley and Illyria in such a way it would conflict with his own feelings for Fred, in a much more profound way. And then we would have gone into the switching of Fred and Illyria and having these two people that he was having these strong feelings about. That was going to be a fairly long journey in the following season, all of which got abbreviated tremendously when [the WB] decided to cancel the show." The cancellation of the show was the inspiration for Wesley's death; Whedon gave Denisof the option of keeping the character alive, but Denisof believed killing the character was right for the story, "It was very upsetting to read. It's too good a story because it hurts."

Source

 

[Wesley Pryce]

Thank you so much for this,it means a lot to me. 🙂 SO unfortunate we will never to get to see that story line play out the way Joss had intended.