“In every generation there is a chosen one…she alone will stand against the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness. She is the Slayer.”
When a Buffy the Vampire Slayer television reboot was announced last month, it pretty much broke the internet. Many fans (myself included) couldn’t believe that Joss Whedon would dare reboot these characters. Initial reports said it would feature an African American Slayer as the lead, and Midnight, Texas creator Monica Owusu-Breen would serve as the new showrunner with Whedon as a producer. I have my reasons for not wanting to see a new Buffy. One, with the already-planned reboots of Roswell and Charmed (other WB staples from the early-2000s) on their way, I’m getting tired of seeing television shows get revived for the sake of nostalgia. And two, I’ve already shared how I feel about Whedon and how he treats his female characters. It’s also troublesome that he continues to work around young women and about shows centered on young women after reading an article penned by his ex-wife last year titled “Joss Whedon is a Hypocrite Preaching Feminist Ideals.”
The backlash was fierce, but a few days after the reports came out, Owusu-Breen tweeted
“There is only one Buffy.”
It sounds like she has no intention of rebooting Buffy Summers for a third time, which seemed to please fans of the original TV series. Now it sounds like she wants to introduce us to a new Slayer because as she said it’s been twenty years and the world is a lot scarier. That got me thinking—what kind of monsters will this Slayer be up against? Monsters can be literal or figurative. We even saw Buffy fall in love and sleep with a few of them. Will this new Slayer see the world as black or white, or will she see shades of gray?
In addition, many of the original fans who grew up with Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Giles are now in their 30s and 40s. But as teenagers, we related to them. Teenage girls, in particular, related to Buffy and her friends (before we asked ourselves if we were a Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte, or Miranda, we asked ourselves if we were a Buffy, Willow, Cordelia, or Faith). When the show first aired in 1997, there weren’t a lot of options of “strong female characters” to look up to, but Buffy basically created a new genre. Girls today have Katniss, Hermione, and countless others to admire. The TV landscape is also filled with female characters kicking butt like Annalise Keating, Jessica Jones, and basically the entire cast of Big Little Lies. So, what will a Slayer mean to today’s teenagers? How will she stand out among the other “strong, female characters” that have emerged since we last saw a Slayer on TV in 2003?
The world has changed a lot since 2003 too. I think it will be interesting to see a Slayer operate around our current technology. How will she deal with people pulling out their smartphones to film her as she stakes a vampire, and possibly even livetweeting it? What will her Instagram handle be? The_Chosen_One? How many followers will she have? And will she have her own Snapchat filter?
Having an African American Slayer will also add a much needed diverse voice to the story. One of the criticisms of Buffy was its lack of people of color. Having a woman of color play the Slayer (RIP Kendra) might introduce themes we hadn’t seen before like race and culture. With the recent movements like Me Too and Black Lives Matter, the new Slayer will have an opportunity to share those stories to a younger generation. I still remember when an episode involving a school shooting was pulled from the air right after Columbine (it was eventually aired at a later date), but school shootings unfortunately happen more frequently now. What made Buffy special was that it never treated its audience like kids, although we were kids. The writers never shied away from topics like bullying, death, and depression. But Owusu-Breen is right—the world is a much scarier place now.
The new reboot—I mean, revival—is still in the very early stages. A script hasn’t even been written yet, but there are already a lot of expectations riding on Owusu-Breen’s shoulders. She says she’s a fan, and as a fellow fan, I only hope for the best for her and our new Slayer.
What are your thoughts on the revival? Are you excited to meet a new Slayer, or should there only be one Buffy?
The original “Scooby Gang.” Let’s hope the new gang gets their wardrobe updated too!
Images from IMDB.com
I’m okay with a reboot/whatever primarily because I don’t have to watch it if I don’t want to. But Buffy did have some stuff that is well worth revisiting: a chosen one who still needed aid and support from friends (though Xander does NOT WEAR WELL). And as you say, it could be interesting to bring it to a modern time: Back when Buffy started, a pretty little white girl could get away with a lot of chaos, without being considered a bad seed. What about a teenaged black girl in today’s environment? Monsters are only part of the danger.
But mostly, these days, when I want the Buffy feel, I watch Wynona Earp. 🙂
If they made a new slayer, I’d watch an episode at least.
Another Whedon show might be interesting, but I hope they don’t try to recreate the characters one-for-one. I caught part of the BVS movie a few days ago and it definitely didn’t hold up–horrible when stacked up against what the TV show became. A slayer-of-color could be very interesting, considering the change in atmosphere. They might not even need vampires to fight considering how many evil powers and minions are afoot these days.