What Do We Want From A Buffy The Vampire Reboot?

When it was announced recently that Sarah Michelle Gellar would be executive producing a reboot/legasequel series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans rejoiced, but is this something we really want?

Buffy was a totemic series for young nerds growing up in the ‘90s and 2000s, and its influence has only grown in the decades since the show left the airwaves at the end of seven seasons. Series creator Joss Whedon went on to essentially define the style of the MCU for its first decade before he faced a career ending reckoning, and films like I Saw The TV Glow effectively used the aesthetics of the series to contextualize elder millennial nostalgia, but is this something we want to revisit? That’s essentially the question that TV Glow asks; are we who we were? Can we go back to the place that allowed us to disconnect from reality for an hour out of the day (or more if you mainlined the series on DVD)?

Like many people, I’m currently in the middle of a Buffy & Angel rewatch. The flaws of both shows (wooden acting, inexpensive effects, the college level playwright dialogue, Faith) are apparent, but there’s something cozy about both shows that’s so wonderful to wrap ourselves inside of. For the first three seasons I time traveled back to a time in my life where my biggest concern was what to order at Taco Bell and how to perfectly spike my hair, but I don’t know if I want to see Buffy and Willow at 50, fighting the forces of evil , and doling out wry one-liners every time they dust an adversary.

Series star Sarah Michelle Gellar has been open about her reticence to return to the role that made her a life long convention favorite, and she recently opened up about wanting to get the new series “right,” but what is right when Buffy the Vampire Slayer is more a snapshot of an era in time than a series that can be refilled with new baddies and new problems week after week? As wary as I am, I can’t deny the pull of the Hellmouth.