A Buffy Reboot Without Joss Whedon? BRB, Sharpening My Stakes

So, for those of you who have somehow missed this pretty obvious fact: I am a huge fan of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer. I watched the show religiously in high school and college, got my mom hooked on it by accident, hell, even my tattoo is Buffy-themed.

Which means it should be no surprise that I have strong feelings about the plans Warner has to reboot Buffy. Without writer/creator/God Joss Whedon. Or any of the original cast.

I should add that, proudly, I have not yet lit anything on fire in response to this. This is a big step for me! It shows that I’m really growing as a person. Also, I have waited to write about this until I was collected enough to not write a blog that was just f-word after f-word after f-word. That’s professionalism right there.

But anyway: SERIOUSLY, WHAT THE FUCK. The Buffy television series only ended in 2003 and there’s currently an ongoing comic series that continues the story. So it’s not as if Buffy is some 30 year old franchise that needs a reboot. Granted, the reboot actually planned to be of the orignal film starring Kristy Swanson, which was made in 1992. But still, 1992 is not long enough ago to require a reboot.

Also, the original movie? Well, I won’t say it wasn’t GOOD, because it was at least fun and I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t Joss Whedon’s Buffy, the Buffy that became a cult hit in the late 90’s-early 2000’s. While he had written the original concept and script, the studio took a lot of liberties with it, hence why there are things referenced in the TV series that never happened in the film (IE: Buffy burning down the gym at Hemry High School). Joss’s original script was later turned into a comic called “The Origin.”

But let me address my biggest fear with this. It’s pretty obvious the whole concept of a reboot is to cash in on the current vampire trend. While I can’t fault Warner for wanting to make money, I can state that I’m horribly worried we’ll suddenly see Buffy get the Twilight treatment. In other words: who cares if this chick slays vampires, let’s concentrate on some fucked-up love triangle instead! Oh, and a guy saves her. A lot.

And that’s NOT Buffy Summers. This is:

While the film is being written by someone who says she was a fan who grew up with it, I’m still not convinced. And I very likely will NEVER be because, well. This is a character who saved the souls of a number of teenage girls, who stood out as an ass kicker, who refused to sacrifice her friends and her life to save the world. This is BUFFY. And I’d hate to see her turned into something not-Buffy all for the sake of some fucking Vampire Money.