By Chris Snellgrove
| Revealed
Sarah Michelle Gellar shocked the world lately when she declared her willingness to return to the world of Buffy. The actor has historically mentioned she wouldn’t need to return, however latest initiatives like Dexter: Authentic Sin have satisfied her there are intelligent methods to deliver beloved characters and their worlds again. That also leaves the query of how to deliver the collection again, however that query was truly answered many years in the past with a failed pilot: merely put, Buffy the Vampire Slayer must return as an animated collection.
The First Buffy Animated Try
Again in 2004, one yr after the live-action present ended, Joss Whedon launched a four-minute presentation for Buffy: The Animated Collection that was designed to assist him promote a cartoon to any networks that may have an interest (you may watch it within the video above if you happen to’re ). He had truly been engaged on the mission since 2001, and he hoped the cool animation and returning actors like Anthony Stewart Head may assist him promote this present, which was meant as a prequel set when the characters had been nonetheless in highschool.
The collection by no means offered and Whedon mentioned the mission was useless in 2005, however with Gellar’s willingness to return, it’s time to deliver the thought of a Buffy the Vampire Slayer animated present again to life. She notably didn’t return to voice the character for that 2004 presentation, nor did she reprise the position of Buffy Summers within the glorious Audible authentic Slayers: A Buffyverse Story. Now that she’s prepared to come back again, it’s necessary for a future showrunner to find out one of the simplest ways to make that occur.
Why Animation Works Higher
If Buffy the Vampire Slayer got here again as a live-action collection slightly than an animated one, the most important concern for any community could be the excessive manufacturing prices. Along with all these good units and particular results, they’d need to pay for the legacy actors to return, and a few of them could not like the thought of returning to a grueling manufacturing schedule. Carried out poorly, a live-action Buffy reboot could be just like the Frasier revival, which notably introduced again the title character however relegated the unique ensemble forged to very occasional cameos (mercifully, that modified with Peri Gilpin’s strong Season 2 presence).
Fortuitously, making Buffy the Vampire Slayer into an animated collection solves each issues by making manufacturing cheaper even because it makes manufacturing a lot simpler for the expertise. One of many causes that Audible snagged so many veteran Buffy stars for Slayers: A Buffyverse Story is that the majority actors discover merely recording traces fairly preferable to spending hours worrying over hair and make-up earlier than taking pictures scenes into the wee hours. A Buffy cartoon could be equally simple to document traces for, and the flexibility of the format leaves issues broad open for some artistic writers.
Joss Whedon initially tried to create a Buffy the Vampire Slayer animated prequel present, and that concept may nonetheless work if creators and followers wished to make use of this cartoon to flesh out the Scoobies’ earlier adventures. Nonetheless, it will be simply as simple to set the cartoon within the current day and discover how the world modified when Buffy gave her superpowers to each potential Slayer on this planet. In the event that they wished to go the X-Males ‘97 route and rework nice comedian arcs into episodes, Darkish Horse’s killer Buffy comics created as new “seasons” of the unique present could be an ideal start line.
Talking of X-Males ‘97, that present is proof {that a} Buffy the Vampire Slayer animated present might be profitable whereas nonetheless exploring some very darkish subject material. High quality at all times wins out, and if we get a high-quality Buffy cartoon (with or with out the controversial Whedon’s involvement), followers will come working. Sarah Michelle Gellar is able to come again to the position that made her well-known, and a cartoon adaptation could finally be our greatest wager to get a number of the outdated magic again from some of the groundbreaking franchises in tv historical past.
Supply: Selection
