Is this hell?
OK let’s just get this out of the way from the get-go: Buffy doesn’t need a reboot, I repeat – Buffy doesn’t need a reboot.
Come on guys, just… no.
This week, the suits over at Fox – more accurately TV group chairman and big-boss Gary Newman, decided it was time to discuss the idea of a Buffy The Vampire Slayer reboot. Keep in mind this week also marks the 21st anniversary of the show… coincidence? Probably not.
During a INTV conference in Israel just days ago, Newman said the topic of rebooting the show was one regularly discussed at the network, “It’s something we talk about frequently,” he revealed. Groan.
But then he said something that gave all Buffy purists a glimmer of hope – something that made it clear that this entirely unnecessary and lazy idea might never come to fruition:
“When Joss decides its time, we’ll do it, until Joss does, we won’t.”
And the world breathes a sigh of relief.
If that’s the main caveat to the reboot (or revival) actually occurring, we can get on with living our lives. There’s no way Whedon would get on board considering the revelations about his personal life during the last 12 months. Maybe in ten years, sure, but not now.
And can I just say, even if Whedon IS on board – we STILL don’t need a Buffy reboot.
While there’s no other show that gets the idea of coming back from the dead quite like Buffy (after all she died twice), there’s no way Whedon would be able to do the show justice in 2018.
Why? Because we know too much. Our approach to the series would be different.
As much as we like to think the outside world doesn’t affect the way we view our favourite shows or movies, it does.
And frankly, Buffy fans aren’t happy with Whedon, after his ex-wife and Buffy co-creator, Kai Cole, revealed a few home truths about Whedon in an open letter last year.
Cole exposed her ex-husbands’ years of infidelity on the Buffy set, adding he was emotionally abusive to her and others – something she believed to be contradictory to his public persona as a feminist.
In quoting her former husband from a letter he had once sent her her, Kai posted the following: “When I was running Buffy, I was surrounded by beautiful, needy, aggressive young women… Suddenly I am a powerful producer and the world is laid out at my feet…”
Die-hard Buffy fans were bitterly disappointed in Whedon, and still are more than a year later.
Therefore, as die-hard Buffyverse members, we have taken it upon ourselves to protect the sanctity of Buffy. We’re the watchers – taking care of the legacy of characters that taught us it was OK to be different, it was OK to struggle, and that finding your place in the world was par for the course.
From a more pratcial point of view, Whedon also did make it clear during a 2017 interview with The Hollywood Reporter that he wasn’t into the concept of reboots, and would rather create something new for viewers.
“Is the nostalgia bank so goddamn secure that we can just keep withdrawing from it? And this is coming from a man who’s made a movie or a comic book out of every show he’s done.” Whedon said.
“You can’t replicate the magic of the original. You bring something back, and even if it’s exactly as good as it was, the experience can’t be. You’ve already experienced it, and part of what was great was going through it for the first time.”
@joss do me a favor and DON’T EVER think about this. We love Buffy and the Buffyverse the way they are. We don’t need a reboot or something! Thank u!
— Rxfa (eu) (@Rxfaeu) March 13, 2018
No please just don’t
Do new stuff
If you want to keep creating within the Buffyverse, go with a spin-off
But please just stop with the remakes and the reboots, it just taints the original and gives this “we’re out of ideas so here let us force feed you what you already love” vibe— Lidia Castillo (@LidiaCazam) March 13, 2018
Nah.
You don't get to repaint the Mona Lisa.
Get new ideas— Niall Holden (@rup31) March 13, 2018
During Newman’s Buffy discussion this week, he made one final remark that the reboot would only be worthy if there was a passionate fan base and “built-in brand recognition” around the idea.
What he fails to realise is the fan base IS passionate because the original show was perfect to us. That doesn’t mean you get to capitalise on something that is as close to many of us, as actual family.
Family.
Fans re-watch episodes over and over not because they’re looking for something new, but because they find a sense of happiness, nostalgia, and contentment in the old and familiar.
Buffy saved the world. A lot. She’s paid her dues… So let’s just slay the idea of the reboot and let it dissolve into a little pile of dust.
Slay the day away