Why a Buffy reboot is a terrible idea

When I checked my phone on a fateful Saturday morning, I certainly didn’t expect to read an announcement that Buffy the Vampire Slayer was getting a reboot. Although I was a mere foetus when the first episode premiered I eventually watched it and was rewarded with some of the best television I’ve ever seen.

Not only are there wonderful individual episodes standing on its own merit as brilliant pieces of visual media, but it’s fleshed out characters made for scintillating drama with engaging characters that its viewers would come to adore. Though not perfect, Whedon and his staff created a brilliant female protagonist whose tenacity, intelligence and strength were counterweighted with her own believable flaws and deftly handled the task of Willow’s sexuality in an era where the landscape of television was spartan of LGBT representation. And the overarching serialised narrative common today was a technique codified by Buffy. The puerile sounding synopsis can make it hard for modern readers to not appreciate its legacy, but its influence on television is undeniable. So why with all things considered, is this still an atrocious idea?

Buffy’s iconic status makes a reboot futile, doomed to ignominious failure

My immediate response was a cynical one; it would appear a desperate Joss Whedon is arresting the descent of his star in the most cynical manner. His involvement in mainstream Hollywood has receded since the production nightmare of The Avengers: Age of Ultron where he shunned expectations to direct Infinity War, leaving the Marvelverse with a blank creative slate. Alongside this, concerns about his portrayal of women in films and an open letter from his ex-wife about his behaviour on the set of Buffy damaged much of the goodwill he cultivated. This is speculative to the extreme, but if there is any truth to that line of logic then it’s a massive miscalculation. Buffy’s iconic status makes a reboot futile, doomed to ignominious failure – how readily will audiences accept different actors playing their beloved characters? Could they find actors to do so? If you doubt my scepticism, just look at the reaction on social media. It would make more sense to reboot Firefly, the aborted sci-fi series with a cult following that love telling you of the injustice of its cancellation at every available opportunity (I personally expected much more restraint from Fox Studios – it’s not like they ever controversially cancel shows).

Now, I personally think Buffyverse content isn’t inherently a bad idea; on the contrary, with correct management, it’s a wonderful opportunity for a renaissance. But a reboot is the one idea that trips before attempting to clear the first hurdle. The detailed development of the Buffyverse and rich folklore present an immeasurable range of possibilities for new Buffyverse media, just like Buffy’s contemporary spin-off Angel. There was a prequel for Rupert Giles called Ripper proposed by Whedon to the BBC, for example, which never entered production. In fairness though, Whedon appears to have consistently struggled for an ironclad vision of Ripper, and a Giles’ spin-off doesn’t have the same appeal. But then why not just create new stories? They could adapt the canonical Season Eight comics that continue the stories of the original cast or take the Disney route and create new canon. The show ended with an army of slayers imbued with Buffy’s powers – that’s the perfect opportunity to develop a new story around new slayer(s) in the Buffyverse without the grim spectre of the show’s legacy looming over with a scythe ready to kill the project.

It screams of a seemingly myopic tokenism

Perhaps the worst aspect of this reboot is the decision to have a diverse cast. Whilst it’s commendable to make the show more incisive about the issue of race, just rebooting the character to make her non-white doesn’t address the fundamental cultural problem that marginalised people lack opportunities to tell their own stories. If we take ‘reboot’ to be a remake of the 7 seasons, then that freedom to tell their own stories is stifled by the narrative structure of a series that was never written to reflect the experiences of other nationalities and ethnicities. It screams of a seemingly myopic tokenism, but when you look at our current cultural zeitgeist of Black Panther, Get Out and Dear White People, then it stops being myopia. Myopia is impossible to control; it’s a misjudgement resulting from ignoring the success of minority-driven storytelling.

I sincerely hope I’ve jumped the gun on an announcement sparse of details; a new show of the Buffyverse written with a new mythology about an African-American, Hispanic, or Asian slayer (with creative input from writers of that ethnic background) would be wonderful. But simply calling it a reboot with a diverse cast appeases nobody, and all is left is an uninspired project doomed to failure.