By Chris Snellgrove | Published
Sarah Michelle Gellar recently shocked the world when she declared her desire to return to the world of Buffy. The actor has always said she wouldn’t want to return, but recent projects like Dexter: Original Sin convinced her that there are clever ways to bring back beloved characters and their worlds. There still remains the question of how to bring the series back, but that question was actually answered decades ago with a failed pilot: Simply put, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is due to return as an animated series.
Buffy’s first attempt at animation
In 2004, a year after the live-action series ended, Joss Whedon released a four-minute presentation for Buffy: the animated series which was designed to help him sell a cartoon to any networks that would be interested (you can watch it in the video above if you’re interested). He had actually been working on the project since 2001, and he hoped that the cool animation and returning actors like Anthony Stewart Head could help him sell this series, which was intended as a prequel when the characters were still in high school.
The series never sold and Whedon declared the project dead in 2005, but with Gellar wanting to return, it’s time to bring the idea of a Buffy the Vampire Slayer animated show that comes to life. She notably did not return to voice the character during this 2004 presentation, nor did she reprise the role of Buffy Summers in the excellent Audible original. Slayers: A Buffyverse Story. Now that she’s set to return, it’s important for a future showrunner to determine the best way to accomplish this.
Why Animation Works Better
If Buffy the Vampire Slayer returned as a live-action series rather than an animated series, any network’s biggest concern would be high production costs. On top of all those pretty sets and special effects, they’d have to pay for returning old cast members, and some of them might not like the idea of returning to a grueling production schedule. Badly done, a live-action Buffy reboot would be like the Spawn revival, which notably brought back the title character but relegated the original ensemble to very occasional cameos (thankfully, this changed with the solid presence of Peri Gilpin in season 2).
Fortunately, do Buffy the Vampire Slayer in an animated series solves both of these problems by making it cheaper to produce while also making it much easier for talent to produce. One of the reasons Audible recruited so many veterans Buffy stars for Slayers: A Buffyverse Story is that most actors find it better to simply record lines rather than spend hours worrying about hair and makeup before shooting scenes until the early hours. A Buffy it would be just as easy to record lines for a cartoon, and the format’s versatility leaves things wide open for some creative writers.
Joss Whedon initially attempted to create a Buffy the Vampire Slayer prequel animated series, and this idea could still work if the creators and fans wanted to use this cartoon to flesh out the Scoobies’ earlier adventures. However, it would be just as easy to set the cartoon in the present 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 to X-Men ’97 route and turns large comic book arcs into episodes, Dark Horse’s killer Buffy comics, created as new “seasons” of the original series, would be a great place to start.
Speaking of X-Men ’97this show is proof that a Buffy the Vampire Slayer an animated show could be successful while exploring very dark subjects. Quality always wins, and if we get high quality Buffy cartoon (with or without Whedon’s controversial involvement), fans will come running. Sarah Michelle Gellar is ready to return to the role that made her famous, and a cartoon adaptation might ultimately be our best bet for reclaiming some of the old magic of one of the most groundbreaking franchises in gaming history. television.
Source: Variety
