A few weeks ago, it was announced that Fox was pressing ahead with a “reboot” of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with original creator Joss Whedon in place as executive producer and Monica Owusu-Breen serving as showrunner. The news made waves, too, mostly due to the fact that it’s believed the new female lead of the revived show will be African-American.
The announcement split Buffy fans right down the middle though as, while many embraced the fact that the Buffyverse was returning to screens in a new, more diverse incarnation, others didn’t like the idea of their favorite show getting remade. Thankfully, Owusu-Breen took to Twitter to all but confirm that the new series will be a continuation of the original and not a reboot in the strictest sense.
But where’s the project at right now? Well, Fox Television Group Chairman and CEO Gary Newman spoke at the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour recently and revealed that the show’s actually only in its earliest stages. He explained that it’s not something the studio’s racing to get made and is entrusting the creators to hand in a script for a pilot when they’re ready.
“It’s not on an incredibly fast track, but we’re hopeful. There’s actually no script to see. We’ve sat down with creators and had conversations with them about it. It’s a very exciting prospect,” Newman said. “It’s fairly early. We haven’t pitched it to any possible licensees yet, all of that is still to come. We’re thrilled that Joss has engaged Monica who he worked with on one of his other series. She’s the person who is day to day on it. She has a great take on the show.”
This fits with the initial announcement of Buffy‘s revival, which stated that the series was still in the concept stages with plans not fully formed yet. Whedon and Owusu-Breen are expected to be pitching the show to cable and streaming networks this summer, however, so we might get some more concrete updates on what the writers have up their sleeve soon.
The OG Buffy the Vampire Slayer stars have already started to support the project, too. James Marsters – who played vampire bad boy Spike – has made it clear that he’d be willing to return in any capacity Whedon wanted. Fingers crossed then that Sarah Michelle, Alyson Hannigan and the rest of the Scooby gang will come forward and say the same thing, too.
