Okay, I know this shocking piece of news was released in November of last year, but I didn’t find out until I received my Jan. 28, 2011 copy of Entertainment Weekly. Flipping disinterestedly through the pages, I caught a glimpse of a very familiar scythe/axe/stake weapon, and I quickly reached out to stop the page from turning. The weapon was where it should be, in the hands of a sketch of Buffy Summers. But why was it in this magazine?
The article itself, “Joss Whedon spills on the new Buffy comics,” discusses the recently completed Season 8 comic-book series, which continues Buffy’s story after the seventh and final season of the television program. The comic-books will continue with Season 9, which will debut late in 2011.
Although I was excited to hear about the continuation of the Buffy comics, what really caught my attention was the scandalous final paragraph, in which Whedon is asked how he feels “about the recently announced plans for a Buffy reboot movie without his involvement.”
Before I tell you his response, I have to tell you mine. It went something like this: “WHAT?! Are they insane? How can they do that? She’s his creation! Those traitorous, greedy, two-timing jerks!” These outbursts continued to pop out sporadically over the next few days. I just couldn’t believe it! A Buffy remake without the man who dreamed her up in the first place? It just doesn’t seem possible without butchering the character. But maybe that’s their intention. Who knows?
We don’t know how Whedon handled the news in the privacy of his home, but his response in Entertainment Weekly was calm and even. He admitted that he was both offended and curious about the new project, a much more rational response than can be expected from us fans.
Why should you care?
(For anyone who is unfamiliar with the plot, I apologize for not providing a detailed outline here, but it’s difficult to cover the intricate storylines of a film, seven seasons of a television series, several video games, and a comic-book series in one blog. Briefly, Buffy Summers is a young woman endowed with supernatural strength and fighting capabilities (and other lesser powers), whose destiny is to slay vampires and other forces of evil. The many media outlets which tell her story detail her continual fight with the forces of evil and her struggle to balance destiny with the weight of growing up in the real world.)
Since her introduction in the 1992 film Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in which she was portrayed by Kristy Swanson, Buffy Summers has become probably the most recognized and respected science fiction/fantasy heroine of our lifetimes (so far). Buffy was certainly my role model growing up. I remember watching her fight vampires and demons and wanting to learn to be just like her. She inspired girls to stand up for themselves and, maybe a little too often, beat up the little boys on the playground.
Whedon’s intention for Buffy was to reverse the stereotype of the damsel-in-distress, and he succeeded. Buffy reminded women that they could learn to defend themselves, that walking to their cars in the dark didn’t have to be a scary experience. While retaining her femininity, Buffy destroyed the idea of woman as delicate, fragile, and defenseless. Women can fight too. We don’t need men to save us.
The television series starring Sarah Michelle Gellar hosted almost 6 million regular viewers in its initial airing.
Obviously, we like the idea of a female superhero.
Anyway, let’s get back to the crisis of this remake.
After reading the little mention of the Buffy remake I immediately went online to search for more information. Apparently the makers of the remake are aiming to create a darker, more mature story. This detail reminded me of Joss Whedon’s response to the 1992 film, for which he wrote the script but had little involvement afterwards. Although his intentions were for a serious film, the director chose to make it light-hearted and a little silly. The idea was redeemed in the considerably darker and more serious television series, which deals with realistic emotions and consequences. I’m sure anyone who has recently watched the final two seasons of the show will agree with me when I ask: how can this story get any darker?
This remake will also not feature any of the original characters. When I first read that announcement, I lost all hope for the project. First, they toss Joss Whedon out of the mix. Now we don’t have Willow, Xander, Giles, Dawn, or Spike to look forward to? Why are they even calling it Buffy the Vampire Slayer? It appears that this film will not resemble its sources in any respect beyond the title. Why not just give it an entirely new name?
Among my many remaining concerns, I’m nervous about the results of this film being created amid the current vampire frenzy. Though I concede that not all of the films and novels to come out of this trend have been awful, I still insist that its effect on a Buffy remake will be disastrous.
Right now our teenagers (and middle-aged housewives) are in love with sparkly and repentant vampires, not the blood-sucking, live-to-kill monsters that constitute the majority of Buffy’s undead enemies. And though the t-shirt stating “And then Buffy staked Edward. The End” is still selling quite well at our local faux gothic stores, would Twilight fans peer through their tightly clamped hands to watch Buffy kill their hero?
My guess is no.
How is this film going to succeed? No Joss Whedon, no original characters, and a merciless vampire slayer in the Twilight era? They’ve branded this film with the title of an awesome heroine who still fights on in a killer comic-book series, but the content won’t reflect her at all. I hope that this movie doesn’t mean the doom of the series. I am really looking forward to Season 9.
Although the mentioned interview only appears in the printed edition of Entertainment Weekly, the website hosts a very similar piece that you can find here.