Buffy the Vampire Slayer Revival Coming to Hulu
Another franchise revival is on the way, and it’s the one I probably feared the most. According to Deadline, a continuation of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is being developed for Hulu, with Sarah Michelle Gellar expected to return as the title character. No other actors have been named, although Deadline’s sources tell them other original series cast members are expected to return. Nora and Lilla Zuckerman are producing the series and writing the pilot, which Chloé Zhao will direct. All four women are producing the series, along with the producers of the 90s show, Fran Rubel Kuzui and Kaz Kuzui, Gail Berman, and national treasure Dolly Parton, and they are currently putting a writers’ room together. Buffy the Vampire Slayer starred Gellar as Buffy Summers, a teenager from L.A. who moves to the small town of Sunnydale, which resides on a gateway to hell and attracts all sorts of evil creatures. Fortunately for everyone else, Buffy is the Slayer, a girl who is chosen in each generation and given superpowers so she can fight “the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness.” Joss Whedon, who created Buffy the Vampire Slayer and ran the show for its entirety, will not be involved in any way because the new series would be in severe danger of actually being good if he were.
If you want me to put it bluntly, no Whedon, no Buffy. You can’t take something this specific, this carefully crafted, this infused with the voice of its creator in every facet of it, and make it without said creator. That’s why every “extended universe” Buffy product sucks (except the video game, Chaos Bleeds); the books, the comics, that infuriating audiobook Amber Benson and Christopher Golden wrote, they all failed to capture the show’s feel because Whedon wasn’t involved. Even the continuation comics Whedon did have a hand in were pretty bad. Buffy the Vampire Slayer needs to remain as it is, having ended its story and opened up Buffy’s future. The whole point of the last shot of the series (spoilers if you haven’t seen it) is that Buffy can do anything now; it’s better if what comes next is hers alone. I’d only trust Whedon to pick up that ball, and Whedon has left the building because he made Ray Fisher cry. What we’re going to get is more fan fiction, something Buffy has had a ton of over the years (and Whedon welcomed it; he once called it the greatest compliment he could get), except this one will have an air of authenticity because Sarah Michelle Gellar will be in it. Gellar, as Deadline notes, had always said she wouldn’t return to Buffy, and she was right – as, apparently, was The Dark Knight about dying a hero or living long enough to see yourself become the villain.
And let’s be real: there’s no way a modern Buffy the Vampire Slayer is anything but an insufferable feminist lecture, something the original series masterfully avoided. Buffy was a strong female lead but not a “strong female lead;” she bled, she made mistakes, she could be an asshole, and she was always two steps away from crumbling under the weight of her calling. The rest of the women on the show were strong in terms of characterization, but most were not warriors like Buffy; they had other skills, like magic, computer know-how, or knowledge of the demon world. Likewise, there were men who could kick a comparable amount of ass to Buffy, and there was never a need to emasculate or diminish them to make Buffy look better. That will never be allowed to happen in the era of the migraine-inducing girl boss, and I’m praying they keep my man Spike out of this before they absolutely destroy him. There have been a slew of recent articles about Xander, one of Buffy’s best friends, calling him toxic and discussing his bad qualities. And the thing is, they’re right, to an extent; Xander can be awful, and I said it even while the show was running. But that’s the point: every character on Buffy was deeply flawed because they were human. There’s no way they’ll avoid making Xander akin to a villain this time instead of having the nuance that he’s a decent person who can do terrible things, like everyone else. And I’m not ready to believe the woman behind Eternals is going to somehow pull off a miracle with this.
I hate saying all of this because Buffy the Vampire Slayer is my favorite thing of all time – you can read about some of the reasons why here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 – and has some of my favorite characters as well, including Buffy. (Spike may be my favorite fictional character ever.) I never thought I’d be against it coming back with the original actors, but I also never thought Joss Whedon would be removed from his creation because of a bunch of nonsense whining. (I acknowledge that he’s a mean guy who cheated on his wife; that’s not enough to have your life and creations taken away from you in my book.) The modern era of entertainment sucks, and my dread of a Buffy the Vampire Slayer revival is just the latest example of why – and, for me, probably the worst.
Let us know what you think of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer revival in the comments!
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