You may talk about how your favourite series was cancelled and movie sequels not happening or sat in development hell; however for some of us we have been waiting since May 2003 for our next glimpse our favourite characters.
In 1997 Joss Whedon created his first television series, Buffy the Vampire which received critical and popular acclaim that usually reached between four and six million viewers on original airings. Buffy is often to this day cited as one of the greatest shows of all time. When UPN cancelled the show after 7 successful series, Buffy continued in novels, video games and comic books including the Whedon directed comic book Buffy Series 8 that continued where series 7 left off. In fact Buffy was so successful that in 1999 during the middle of the Buffy run, Whedon created the highly successful spin off Angel that ran until 2004.
Oh the memories that the Buffy and Angel fans alike still hold today; however what they are missing and still long for is the continuation of their favourite characters, whether this is in further television series or movies. When Buffy was originally cancelled Whedon worked on a several spin offs. The first was Buffy: The Animated Series, in which the regular cast was to return to provide the voices for their characters. All though 20th Century Fox showed interest in developing and selling the show to another network, the show was never picked up following the initial three minute pilot.
The other series was called ‘Ripper’, based around Rupert Giles (Anthony Steward Head). The closest we got to this series was in 2007 when Whedon confirmed that talks were almost complete on a 90 minute special with the BBC and Anthony Stewart Head; however sadly this never materialised.
There was also talks of a TV series called ‘Slayer School’ but Whedon was not so keen on this idea and so this idea was dropped early. The two most promising spin-offs after Ripper was a Faith spin-off and a Spike movie. Sadly Eliza Dushku declined the pitch and opted for the show Tru Calling and in 2012 James Marsters killed Spike by announcing that he considers himself to visibly old to continue the roll without having “to cheat”.
When reading the above you would think all hope is lost, yet recently Sarah Michelle Gellar said about would she do a Buffy movie:
If there ever was the right story, we would do it. But the thing with Buffy is that Buffy was a movie, and it ultimately didn’t work as a film.
Yeah… that kinda put the nail in the coffin (ahem!) for a Buffy movie, despite numerous fans declaring the a movie is happening. Gellar is right, Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a movie in 1992 written by Joss Whedon, but this movie is the prequel to the TV series in some ways, it not actually a prequel as such. The movie does a cult following but was considered a flop and failed on a number of levels.
With the cast, like the rest of us, getting older and older and Whedon going from strength to strength, saddly Buffy fans I must advise you that I cannot see any further series or movies to the Buffy franchise. Come on, Whedon only managed to complete one series of Firefly and a follow up movie. Lets not be greedy, yes we were here first, but we have have so many more memories, Firefly will no doubt come first.
So is all lost for Buffy fans? Hellmouth no! (see what I did there?) with the success of other supernatural programs like, True Blood, The Vampire Diaries, Teen Wolf, Supernatural, Sanctuary to name a few, there is still plenty of room for Buffy; however, this would no doubt have to be a retelling and considering Whedons’ schedule, the most he could be at this time would be an executive producer.
If you are missing Buffy and the Scooby Gang, the complete series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is currently available on Netflix.com and Lovefilm.com. Sarah Michelle Gellar is currently filming in the up coming TV series ‘The Crazy Ones’ with Robin Williams.
