New ‘Buffy’ Reboot Show-runner Addresses Backlash
Last week, we learned that, falling in line with the current theme of 90s TV revivals, Joss Whedon‘s Buffy The Vampire Slayer is getting a reboot. The supernatural teen drama series is currently being developed by Fox 21 Studios, with Monica Owusu-Breen (creator of Midnight, Texas) tapped as the writer, show-runner and executive producer.
News of the reboot broke to an immediate backlash. While many fans of the original series were excited for a fresh take on the series, especially with Whedon on board, others viewed the reboot as a cynical attempt to cash in on nostalgia. Some fans are disappointed that the project is only a reboot, instead of a return to the original story and cast.
Owusu-Breen addressed the backlash over the project, which will cast a black actress in the lead role of Buffy Summers. For all the accusations of executive cynicism, her response on Twitter to fans’ concerns reads as sincere:
“For some genre writers it’s Star Wars. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is my Star Wars. Before I became a writer, I was a fan. For seven seasons, I watched Buffy Summers grow up, find love, kill that love. I watched her fight, and struggle and slay.
There is only one Buffy. One Xander, one Willow, Giles, Cordelia, Oz, Tara, Kendra, Faith, Spike, Angel… They can’t be replaced. Joss Whedon’s brilliant and beautiful series can’t be replicated. I wouldn’t try to.
“But here we are, 20 years later… and the world seems a lot scarier. So maybe, it could be time to meet a new Slayer… And that’s all I can say.”
Whedon, who saw his original series run from 1997 to 2003, will executive produce the new series, alongside executive producers of the original series Gail Berman, Fran Kazui and Kaz Kazui, and Joe Earley of Berman’s Jackal Group.