The first time I ever watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer was when I walked into the kitchen to see my mom, Alicia Crawford, sobbing to the season 2 finale. Sarah Michelle Gellar's slayer had run a sword through her vampire lover to close a portal to hell.
Just another Tuesday in Sunnydale.
I remember watching Buffy cry over what just happened and immediately thinking, "Wait, this show looks really good?" It became THE show my late mother and I watched together. We talked about it all the time. She even recorded a few episode of my Buffy podcast, Slayerfest98, with me. When we buried her, she was buried with two Buffy pins on her dress. When I interviewed James Marsters, who played Buffy's other vampire lover Spike, I let him know my mom and I had bonded over our shared attraction to him — and he told me we had good taste.
So, to say I've been emotional about the announcement of the Buffy sequel series would be an understatement. I was teaching when the news broke and opened my phone to quite possibly the most text notifications I've ever gotten. When I read the news, I sat at the desk in my empty classroom and wept. I immediately wanted to call my mom to tell her — she'd be so excited our favorite hero was coming back (even if she didn't love the Charmed reboot).
I've been wanting for some kind of sequel series since the moment the spin-off show, Angel, ended. The Buffyverse, as it's called, is one with plenty of new stories to be told. It's a world where demons can become newly human, where dancing demons exist, where vampires with souls seem to fall in love with vampire slayers, and where "every girl who could have the power — can stand up, will stand up."
We had the canon comics from Dark Horse that were labeled by seasons. We had novels taking place after the show, after the comics. We had the Slayers audio drama that brought us a new slayer and into a new alternate universe where Charisma Carpenter's Cordelia was the slayer.
The universe has always been ripe for new stories — for expanding on things we love and introducing us to new characters, new slayers, and new big bads.
Back in December, Sarah Michelle Gellar went on The Drew Barrymore Show to promote her new show, Dexter: Original Sin (a prequel series to the original Dexter series). Barrymore asked her about the possibility of our beloved slayer Buffy ever coming back. Gellar answered, for the first time ever, that she was open to the possibility. Prior to that, she'd never answered that question (which she got constantly) with anything other than some form of "absolutely not." So fans were losing their shit (I'm fans). I posted The Draw Barrymore Show clip on my podcast's Instagram and the comment section went wild. The reactions ranged from know-it-alls letting me know she didn't say in the clip it was happening to folks incorrectly correcting me to let me know she's always said she'd be down to folks letting me know they cried just watching her finally say she'd be down.
While she didn't explicitly say it was happening — it felt suspect that she'd suddenly be publicly saying she'd be down. Sarah Michelle Gellar has always seemed like a good businesswoman and come off like a smart person — so why would she suddenly be saying this?
Later that day, I got a DM from a follower to let me know she was in talks about a new series with some details that would also be proven true, like Chloe Zhao being attached. I would go on to get a few more DMs letting me know someone had heard from someone who heard from someone that the show was happening. I tried not to let myself get excited because how often did these rumors surface?
A few years back, there'd been a revival that had been officially announced — centering on a new slayer that would be lead by new showrunner Monica Owusu-Breen. I even had her on my podcast, where she discussed the fact that she'd gotten no updates since the Disney buyout of Fox — so even something that had been officially announced ended up not happening. So, I refused to let myself get my hopes up. It'd been a rough year, a rough election season — I couldn't handle the let down of these rumors being untrue but … it did track for why she suddenly vocalized interest in Buffy Summers returning to our screens.
But, here we are — Hulu has ordered a pilot (not a full series) and, as far as we know, the show has not started filming yet. It's still very early but not too early for me to be absolutely manic every time I think about it which leads me to thinking about how it could work, who could come back, what plots I'd like to see, and basically rewriting all the fanfic I've had written in my head ever since Angel ended.
With Sarah Michelle Gellar openly talking about it — I think that leads to the possibility that more cast members, who may have been less likely to come back, will also be open to coming back.
The comment section on Gellar's official post about the revival was like a who's who of Buffy cast members — from Emma Caulfield (Anya) to Julie Benz (Darla) to Tom Lenk (Andrew) to Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia) to David Boreanaz (Angel). She even had famous Buffy fans commenting to say how excited they were — folks like Dashboard Confessional, Rose McGowan, Christina Milian, and Melissa Fumero. It was a love fest of excitement from all corners of the internet.
But, as fandoms are wont to do, there were some fans who were not happy. Some fans felt like this would "ruin" the original — which is the most boring copy-and-paste reaction from fans of anything that comes back. Some fans felt it was a needless cash grab. Some fans had some ageist bullshit to say. Some only cared about which vampire boyfriend she'd be with if she returned. To those types of fans, I'd like to say log the fuck off.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer has such a rich universe that it makes sense for the show to come back and be centered around a new slayer (which is the leading rumor about this revival). The show ended with them changing the way that universe would work — Buffy Summers, along with her Scooby Gang, made sure every girl who had the potential to be a slayer would be a slayer. The universe was fully changed after the show ended, which was even addressed in the final season of the spin-of show Angel when we met an unhinged murderous slayer (not Eliza Dushkus' Faith, but a different new one).
We could easily have Alyson Hannigan's Willow return to help with a spell, Anthony Stewart Head's watcher Giles could return to help Buffy train a new slayer, Charisma Carpenter's Cordelia could return as the Higher Power she was promised to become — I think with Gellar on board, we could even get someone like David Boreanaz returning as Angel (while he and James Marsters returning having aged is something that would need to get explained by magic or by saying they both fulfilled the Shanshu Prophecy and became human that way). The show is a supernatural one — Buffy herself died twice and it didn't take, so almost anything goes. It'd be so easy to slide back into that universe and easily introduce new character while honoring the beloved older ones (not unlike 2022's Scream, a revival of the beloved slasher franchise).
I'm emotional at just the thought of seeing Buffy Summers hold a stake again. I could cry thinking of watching an older Buffy (we are only 2 years apart in age, I'm basically Dawn), pun her way through staking a hoarde of vampires at night in a cemetery. Imagining the possibilities of Buffy not on a WB or UPN budget.
So, needless to say, I'm letting myself be excited. My hopes are fully up. If you've watched the news or logged into social media at all recently, you'd know we could all use something fun to look forward to. As Gellar herself said, "… in this world, we need those heroes, I think, more so than ever."
