Buffy is coming back to the small screen, but this time, it won’t be Sarah Michelle Gellar who’s slaying vampires.
Deadline reports that a reboot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is currently in the works from Fox, with Midnight, Texas creator Monica Owusu-Breen developing the series as showrunner. She’ll be joined by Buffy creator Joss Whedon as executive producer, along with original series executive producers Gail Berman, Fran Kazui, and Kaz Kazui. Joe Earley will serve as a sixth executive producer on the reboot. The new series is being billed as a “contemporary reboot” that will build on the mythology of the original show.
“Like our world, it will be richly diverse, and like the original, some aspects of the series could be seen as metaphors for issues facing us all today,” the producers told Deadline. Part of that diversity could come from the new Buffy, as the producers are aiming to cast an African American woman in the role. However, there’s no script yet, and the producers told Deadline that the project is still developing. The current plan is to pitch the series to different streaming networks later this summer.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, created by Whedon, first appeared in the 1992 film of the same name. But that incarnation didn’t match what Whedon had in mind, so he created the original TV series in 1997. The series became a cultural phenomenon, lasting for seven seasons and spawning the spinoff, Angel, that ran for over 100 episodes of its own. But Buffy ended in 2003, and Angel finished the following year, meaning it’s now been a decade-and-a-half since the Buffyverse was on TV. But if all goes according to plan, that Buffy dry spell could be coming to an end very soon.
