By Chris Snellgrove | Published
Sarah Michelle Gellar shocked the world recently when she announced her willingness to return to the world of Buffy. The actor has always said that he would not want to come back, but the latest projects are similar Dexter: Original Sin they have convinced him that there are clever ways to restore beloved characters and their world. That still leaves the question of whether How to return the thread, but that question was actually answered decades ago by a failed pilot: simply put, Buffy the Vampire Slayer it needs to come back as an animated series.
Buffy’s First Animated Attempt
Back in 2004, one year after the live-action show ended, Joss Whedon released a four-minute presentation Buffy: The Animated Series which was designed to help him sell the cartoon to any networks that might be interested (you can watch it in the video above if you like). He had actually been working on the project since 2001, and hoped that cool animation and returning actors like Anthony Stewart Head would help him sell the show, which was intended as a prequel set when the characters were still in high school.
The series didn’t sell and Whedon said the project was dead in 2005, but with Gellar’s willingness to return, it’s time to bring the idea of Buffy the Vampire Slayer the animated show comes back to life. She did not return to voice the character for that 2004 presentation, nor did she reprise her role as Buffy Summers in the first Audible original. Slayers: A Buffyverse Story. Now that he’s ready to make a comeback, it’s important for the future runner to decide the best way to make that happen.
Why Animation Works Better
If Buffy the Vampire Slayer returned as a live-action series instead of an animation, the biggest concern for any network would be the high production costs. In addition to all those beautiful sets and special effects, they’ll have to pay legacy actors to return, and some of them may not like the idea of returning to a heavy production schedule. Badly done, live action Buffy restart will be like Frasier revival, which brought back the title character significantly but dropped the original cast of occasional characters (mercifully, that changed with Peri Gilpin’s strong presence in Season 2).
Fortunately, you do Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the animated series it solves both problems by making production cheaper as it makes production much easier for the talent. It’s one of the reasons why Audible hires so many veterans Buffy stars of Slayers: A Buffyverse Story that many actors find recording lines much better than spending hours worrying about hair and makeup before shooting scenes during the wee hours. A Buffy a cartoon can be just as easy to carve out lines, and the flexibility of the format leaves things wide open for other creative writers.
Joss Whedon originally tried to make a Buffy the Vampire Slayer animated prequel show, and that idea could still work if the creators and fans want to use this cartoon to fill in the earlier adventures of the Scoobies. However, it would be easy to set the cartoon in the present day and explore how the world changed when Buffy gave her superpowers to every potential slayer in the world. If they want to go X-Men ’97 route and turn good comic arcs into episodes, Buffy the Dark Horse Killer comics created as new “seasons” of the original show would be a good start.
Talking about it X-Men ’97that exhibit is proof that a Buffy the Vampire Slayer an animated show can be successful while still exploring a very dark subject. Quality always wins, and when we get high quality Buffy cartoon (with or without Whedon’s involvement), fans will come running. Sarah Michelle Gellar is ready to return to the role that made her famous, and an animated adaptation may finally be our best bet to bring back the old magic in one of the most important moments in television history.
Source: Variety
Source link
