‘Buffy 2.0’ – should they put a stake in it?

Tuesday, 11th January 2011
Natalija Sasic

Some of you may have read last month that Buffy the Vampire Slayer is to be rebooted as a movie for a 2012 release. Of course, as a hardcore Buffy fan, I was ready to bust out the celebratory confetti – that is, until I discovered that the “new” Buffy did not involve any of the original writing staff, cast and, most importantly, Buffy’s much-loved creator Joss Whedon.

Now, there’s no need to over-dramatize the situation – a Buffy superfan still has plenty of ways to obsess. There’s the Season 8 comic book series and its corresponding motion-comics (available to download on iTunes here), endorsed and written by the people that made us love Buffy in the first place. It’s worth making the most out of re-watching DVDs, and of course, there are always prolific sources of Buffy internet fanfiction. Whatever happens, no one is going to ‘steal’ Buffy from its fans. But it’s not about who has a ‘claim’ to it. It’s the sheer ignorance that this is a story that has travelled too far and laid its foundations too solidly to ever be able to start from scratch.

Having started out as an outrageously camp 1992 film with Kristy Swanson in the title role, even though it was pitched and written by Joss Whedon it didn’t quite fulfil his ideals ("I didn't agree with the way the movie was going,” he admitted after the TV show had wrapped). His vision was for an empowered female heroine in a supernatural-horror genre with a slight self-mocking tone, supported by a diverse catalogue of characters and a crackling witty script; it was eventually fulfilled in a formula that sizzled on television screens.

But it didn’t come without its own set of problems: “The network begged me to change the title,” Whedon recalled – it may even partly explain why its ratings were never exactly stellar. In some ways, this was what baffled me with the decision to reimagine Buffy: so much prejudice already exists for that name, there is no way a new potential fanbase will take it seriously.

But it was because Buffy was a hell of a television series that it defied the legions of eye-rolls that were triggered by its title – it was “a B Movie that had something more going on” in Whedon’s words; part of its charm. The name ‘Buffy’ in knowing TV circles became synonymous with thoughtfully executed storytelling, meaningful character development and even its own slanguage and sense of humour. It became a well-respected brand.

So as well as being taken on, as Seth Green (who played werewolf Oz) put it, to “capitalise on a trend” (movie execs think audiences will prance to the cinema just upon hearing the word ‘vampire’ nowadays), it’s because Buffy has a good enough reputation that it’s a risk worth taking. But here’s what I truly believe: some creative projects are so special and one-of-a-kind that they can only occur at a specific time with a particular roster of people involved. It will generate lifelong fans and forever be fondly looked back upon as something worthwhile. But one of the tragedies in life is to recognise that such shooting stars can never have their success replicated – one can only hope to tread upon a new fresh idea that can capture and cling on to the imaginations of millions. Real Buffy fans accept this – and will subsequently boycott Buffy 2.0, I’m sure.

If we’re faced with the grim prospect of thousands of tween girls debating over who’s hotter, Robert Pattinson or whoever plays ‘new Angel’, then I will be the first to call it the start of a trademark Buffy apocalypse. But it could also spark a renaissance in Buffy culture – a whole new generation of Buffy fandom. And that just may be worth shaking a stake at.

The Yorker