Those rumours explained!
It’s been a long time since Buffy the Vampire Slayer graced our screens, bringing us teen angst, epic action and gruesome vamps in a show that pushed boundaries and paved the way for modern supernatural shows.
The original boasted an incredible cast including Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers, alongside Alyson Hannigan as Willow, Nicholas Brendon as Xavier, James Marsters as Spike, and Anthony Head as Giles, with many of them going on to have illustrious careers (with Gellar even returning to the supernatural genre last year).
But, after that epic ending more than two decades ago, could we ever see the show back in action in the form of a reboot?
Rumours have been swirling for years but every now and then we get a seemingly solid update, suggesting that the Slayer is on her way back to us.
Here’s everything we know so far.
Will there be a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot?
It’s a very cautious yes at the moment after a recent update from Dolly Parton.
Parton, whose production company Sandollar Productions produced the original show and spin-off Angel, suggested there are early plans afoot for a reboot.
She told Business Insider: “They’re still working on that. They’re thinking about bringing it back and revamping it.”
Whether these plans will actually be fruitful and end up in a reboot remains to be seen – but it’s an exciting update for fans!
There have reportedly been various attempts at a Buffy reboot, including one in 2009 from the show’s producer Fran Rubel Kuzui, and one in 2018 from Joss Whedon and screenwriter Monica Owusu-Breen – neither of which made their way to screens.
More recently, many of the cast members reunited for the Audible story Slayers: A Buffyverse Story.
Not technically a sequel or continuation of the Buffy TV series, the audio story nonetheless explores new avenues for some of our favourite characters, picking up 10 years after the events of the series’s finale.
Which cast members could return in a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot?
If a new reboot does go ahead, the writers could decide on an entirely new cast. However, considering the deep connection many of the original cast still have with the show, we’d love to see some appearances from them.
If original cast members are set to return, we could potentially expect appearances from the following:
- Alyson Hannigan as Willow
- David Boreanaz as Angel
- Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia
- Anthony Head as Giles
- Michelle Trachtenberg as Dawn
- Seth Green as Oz
- Juliet Landau as Drusilla
Unless something changes in future, Gellar has said she won’t return to the role of Buffy.
She told SFX: “I am very proud of the show that we created, and it doesn’t need to be done. We wrapped that up. I am all for them continuing the story, because there’s the story of female empowerment. I love the way the show was left: ‘Every girl who has the power can have the power.'”
If the story continues on after the events of the original series, there are a few more stars we wouldn’t expect to see back. If you’ve somehow avoided spoilers all this time, you might want to look away now!
We wouldn’t expect a return from Marsters’s Spike after his heroic death in the finale episode. The same goes for Emma Caulfield’s Anya, who met her demise in the finale.
Amber Benson’s Tara also died over the course of the series, prompting complaints from viewers and resulting in heartbreak for Hannigan’s Willow. Meanwhile, after the heartbreaking and widely acclaimed episode The Body, which saw the death of Buffy’s mother Joyce, we wouldn’t expect a return for Kristine Sutherland.
One cast member who could be added to a reboot is Laya DeLeon Hayes, who played the Slayer Indira for the audio series Slayers: A Buffyverse Story.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer is available to stream on Disney Plus. Sign up to Disney Plus for £4.99 a month or £79.90 for a year.
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