While it is great to hear that Sarah Michelle Gellar will return for a Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s reboot needed Sarah Michelle Gellar. Gellar, who was a minor star when she was first cast thanks to her roles in I Know What You Did Last Summer and Scream 2, was the face of the original series.
As the titular Buffy Summers, Gellar balanced a sardonic attitude with a level of humanity and vulnerability that ensured Buffy never felt like a joke or like a cliché. Buffy was tough and intense, but also funny and relatable, meaning she was neither unrealistically unstoppable nor comically incompetent. Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s remake can’t just cruise based on Gellar’s return alone.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer Needs The Entire Scooby Gang Back, Not Just Sarah Michelle Gellar
Buffy The Vampire Slayer Always Needed Its Entire Lineup To Succeed
The confirmation that Sarah Michelle Gellar will return for a Buffy The Vampire Slayer reboot is great, and the lead actor’s comeback is a major coup for the sequel series. However, Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s reboot needs to reunite the rest of the original Scooby gang as well. Variety revealed that director Chloe Zhao will direct the pilot of Hulu’s Buffy The Vampire Slayer reboot, but no further returning cast have been confirmed yet.
Giles, Dawn, Willow, and Spike were all central to Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s appeal.
Although Spike appeared to die in Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s season 7 ending, he was later resurrected in Angel season 5. Giles, Willow, Dawn, and Xander all made it out of the final battle in Sunnyvale alive, although actor Nicholas Brendon’s legal issues mean the latter is unlikely to return. While Buffy’s return is a great start, the fact that most of the original show’s main characters are still canonically alive means the series can’t be rebooted without the Scooby gang. After all, Giles, Dawn, Willow, and Spike were all central to the show’s appeal.
Why Buffy The Vampire Slayer's Reboot Can't Work Without The Full Main Cast
The Scooby Gang Were Central To The Original Show's Outsized Success
Whether or not the reboot can undo Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s infamous twist by bringing back Tara too, the new show at least needs its original heroes. The Scooby gang humanizes Buffy, as her friendship with Willow shows Buffy’s softer side, her romance with Spike highlights her internal conflict, and her relationship with Dawn explores the impact that the death of Buffy’s mother had on her earlier in the series. The Scooby gang were also great characters in their own right, complex and intriguing enough to carry entire episodes of their own.
For the Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot to work, the show can’t just bring back Gellar as a mentor to a new slayer and replace the Scooby gang. The post-final lives of Giles, Willow, and Dawn are just as interesting as Buffy’s fate in the intervening years, meaning ’s reboot owes viewers a proper reunion for these unlikely heroes. As such, Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s reboot still has a few stars to announce before it will feel like a genuine continuation of the series.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer
- Release Date
- 1997 - 2003
- Network
- The WB
- Showrunner
- Joss Whedon
Cast
Buffy Summers
Alexander Harris
WHERE TO WATCH
- Directors
- Joss Whedon
- Writers
- Joss Whedon
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