Hulu stuck a wooden stake into the Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot, but that doesn’t mean the franchise is dead.
Buffy Summers and her ragtag group of Scoobies faced tougher Big Bads than the likes of pilot season.
The story of TV’s vampire-slaying “Chosen One” has lived to tell the tale since her first day at Sunnydale High. Even if you count 1992’s underrated, campy, cult-classic film (which I do!), Buffy has stood the test of time for over 30 years.
While the TV franchise is up in the air, it’s left us wondering what could be next in the Buffyverse. Movies? Games? A different TV story? The Hellmouth is a world of possibilities.
Into each generation, a Buffy the Vampire Slayer project is essential! So, let’s take a look at some ideas for where the franchise can go next.
Same Pilot, New Home.
Who says that the pilot can’t rise from the dead? Vampires do it every day in Sunnydale.
Hulu passed on Buffy the Vampire Slayer: New Sunnydale, but the groundwork is in place to bring the story back.
The tale of Buffy Summers helping a new Slayer train and adapt to their calling expands the universe fans know and love.
Members of the original cast have signed on, and the new cast is trained and ready to go.
Plus, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: New Sunnydale amassed lots of excitement from fans ready to return! It’s an easy transition with all of the benefits.
If not Hulu, Disney can keep it within the family at Disney+. It’s a mature and niche show that can hook audiences.
Or, maybe it’s better at FX? The action, horror, and witty dialogue fit right at home with its other shows.
But if Disney lets it slip away, HBO, Netflix, or Paramount+ could easily make this a juggernaut staple.
Buffy at the Forefront.
One of the biggest changes for Buffy the Vampire Slayer: New Sunnydale is the Slayer focus.
Buffy Summers, played by the legendary Sarah Michelle Gellar could’ve served more as a Watcher-type role. She’d come in to guide and train a new teenage Slayer who receives their calling, Nova (played by Ryan Kiera Armstrong).
Instead of being the advisor, the reboot story could shift to be about Buffy Summers as the lead. She can, once again, be tasked to step into her role as the Slayer to save the world from a Big Bad.
How has her life changed in the years since? What happened to her friends, like Willow and Giles? Sarah Michelle Gellar would eat up the layers of this strong character development.
A Tale In Slayer History.
Let’s say Buffy the Vampire Slayer doesn’t want to expand the timeline into the future. There’s still a treasure trove of stories they can pull from for a TV series.
For example, why not a TV anthology series about the previous Slayers?
Each season can consist of roughly 8 episodes, focusing on the journey of a former Slayer.
The surprise of the calling, training, their climactic fight, and ultimately, their death. This format is adaptable to any setting and time period, and it doesn’t always have to follow the same plot beats.
We know that Slayers die eventually to reach Buffy in the timeline.
However, each season could focus on a specific moment in that Slayer’s life. Like, maybe it’s the First Slayer’s (Sineya) calling, or the tragic betrayal of an untold story?
Buffy Back on the Big Screen.
As mentioned above, Buffy Summers blessed us with her L.A. cheerleading flair in the 1992 movie. That cult classic is a guilty pleasure in all the right ways. But why does the franchise only need to stop at one?
Buffy the Vampire Slayer could follow in the direction of Downton Abbey. The series can expand its stories (maybe the one from New Sunnydale?) into a big-screen film, creating a new movie avenue for its stories.
These could be episodic chapters of “Big Bads” that the new group needs to face.
Or how about a trilogy about this great reunion? Fear Street made it work on Netflix with three interconnected slasher tales.
A trilogy of Buffy the Vampire Slayer movies could mix horror, teen drama, and action all into an apocalyptic climax. A big battle in New Sunnydale that needs to be solved before the credits roll.
From Screen to Page.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer isn’t new to the literary world. After the original TV series ended, the franchise continued the story into a successful graphic novel run for several seasons.
These graphic novels fit into the same canonical universe, while paying respect to the grander Buffyverse at large.
A graphic novel series would already have the built-in readership ready to jump back in. All the team has to do is translate the pilot’s story into the pages of a graphic novel season.
But if a graphic novel doesn’t work, Buffy the Vampire Slayer has also continued through many written adult, young adult, and children’s books. Drawings optional, of course. (But always welcomed!)
An Animated Missed Opportunity.
Did you know there is another Buffy the Vampire Slayer pilot that didn’t make it to air?
This is a deep cut for all you Buffy fans out there!
At one time in 2002, we were so close to keeping the show on screen through a cartoon. Buffy: The Animated Series would’ve had most of the main cast coming back to voice their characters in new stories told after Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 1 Episode 7.
In this case, Dawn (Buffy’s frustrating yet loving younger sister) would’ve been retroactively added to the narrative.
The cartoon is a blend of the TV series and new stories, but one in the timeline told with Michelle Trachtenberg’s character included.
The animated series would be an amazing treat to bring back from the TV graveyard.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s cast previously signed on and wouldn’t have done it had it been picked up. With the exception of Sarah Michelle Gellar at the time, but we’re in a new decade.
It’s less heavy lifting for their schedules by just having them do voice work.
Plus, most fans love the teenage and high school years of the original TV show.
Buffy: The Animated Series creates more opportunities to expand on tales we never saw or to explore characters who never returned in future episodes.
Justice for the one-off characters, like Marcie Ross, Nancy Doyle, and Aphrodesia!
Power-up Through Gameplay.
Speaking of new stories, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer video games put the action right into the hands of the fans.
We haven’t been treated to a new game since the beat ’em up handheld title, 2009’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Sacrifice.
With gaming, so much has changed since the early years of the original show. The franchise could find new life told through a video game adaptation.
An entry that balances the horror, action, and the characters’ personalities as they fight through demons.
The video game could take the story of the pilot and expand it into a 10-hour (or 30+ hour?) action setting.
We’d get the beginnings of our new Slayer Nova as she learns her skills, with the experience of Buffy, Willow, Giles, etc., fighting alongside her.
Take It to the Stage.
As someone who is eagerly excited to watch Stranger Things: The First Shadow one day, it’s got us thinking about this franchise, too.
Could Buffy the Vampire Slayer work as a play or musical, like Stranger Things?
Short answer? Absolutely!
A stage production could fill in the missing gaps of a new story (the unsold pilot?), or create a new tone of a beloved favorite.
We could have Buffy, Willow, Xander, and all the Scoobies together again, fighting the Hellmouth.
Plus, paired with music? We need to see this!
The musical episode, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 6 Episode 7, is one of the best TV musical episodes ever created. The franchise has embraced theatricality before — it could easily do it again.
Revitalizing The Audio Series.
Finally, if we can’t have the reboot series, the return of Audible’s Slayers: A Buffyverse Story would be a great continuation. The spinoff audio series continued the franchise in a new story, set in an alternate world, right to our ears.
A great aspect about Slayers: A Buffyverse Story is that it brought back most of the TV cast. The series works well on its own and pairs well with the broader continuity.
The audio series could come back to continue expanding its story. It’s baffling that it got canceled in the first place!
And any reason to have Cordelia, Tara, Anya, and Spike back is a great chance to revisit new sides of the Buffyverse.
Now, over to you, Buffy Fanatics!
Are you heartbroken over the rejected pilot? How would you bring back or continue Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Do you agree with any of the ideas above?
Let us know in the comments, or share with other Buffy fans to get their ideas too. The end is never the end when it comes to our favorite vampire slayer.
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