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Sarah Michelle Gellar recently shocked the world when she announced her willingness to return to the world Buffy. The actress has traditionally said that she would not like to return, but recent projects like Dexter: Original Sin they convinced her that there were clever ways to bring back beloved characters and their worlds. That still leaves the question as set the series back, but that question was actually answered decades ago by a failed pilot: simply put, Buffy the Vampire Slayer must come back as an animated series.
Buffy’s first animated attempt
In 2004, a year after the live-action show ended, Joss Whedon released a four-minute presentation for Buffy: The Animated Series which was designed to help him sell the cartoon to any networks that might be interested (you can check it out in the video above if you’re interested). In fact, he had been working on the project since 2001, hoping that great animation and returning actors like Anthony Stewart Head would help him sell the show, which was intended as a prequel when the characters were still in high school.
The series never sold, and Whedon said the project was dead in 2005, but with Gellar willing to return, it’s time to bring the idea Buffy the Vampire Slayer animated show back to life. Notably, she did not return to voice the character for this presentation in 2004, nor did she reprise her role as Buffy Summers in the excellent Audible original. Slayers: A Buffyverse Story. Now that she’s willing to return, it’s important for the future showrunner to determine the best way to make that happen.
Why animation works better
If Buffy the Vampire Slayer returned as a live-action series rather than an animated one, the biggest concern for any network would be high production costs. Besides all those nice sets and special effects, they would have to pay to bring back the original cast, and some of them might not like the idea of going back to a grueling production schedule. Badly done, live action Buffy reboot would be like Frasier revival, which notably brought back the title character but relegated the original cast to very occasional cameos (this thankfully changed with the robust presence of Peri Gilpin in Season 2).
Fortunately, they do Buffy the Vampire Slayer into an animated series solves both problems by making production cheaper, even as it makes it much easier for talent to produce. One of the reasons Audible has caught on with so many veterans Buffy asterisks for Slayers: A Buffyverse Story is that most actors find simply recording lines quite preferable to spending hours worrying about hair and make-up before shooting scenes into the wee hours of the morning. AND Buffy it would be similarly easy to score lines for a cartoon, and the versatility of the format leaves things wide open for some creative writers.
Joss Whedon originally tried to create a Buffy the Vampire Slayer animated prequel show, and the idea could still work if the creators and fans wanted to use this cartoon to complement the Scoobies’ earlier adventures. However, it would be just as easy to set the cartoon in the present day and explore how the world changed when Buffy gave her superpowers to all the would-be Slayers in the world. If they wanted to go X-Men ’97 A great starting point would be Dark Horse’s Buffy the Killer comic and created as a new “season” of the original series and transform great comic book arcs into episodes.
Speaking of X-Men ’97that show is proof that a Buffy the Vampire Slayer an animated show could be successful while still exploring some very dark subject matter. Quality always wins and if we get high quality Buffy cartoon (with or without the involvement of the controversial Whedon), fans will flock. Sarah Michelle Gellar is ready to return to the role that made her famous, and a cartoon adaptation may finally be the best bet to recapture some of the old magic from one of the most groundbreaking franchises in television history.
Source: Variety
