Earlier this week, we learned that writer Monica Owusu-Breen is working with executive producer Joss Whedon to reboot the Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series with a new show starring an African American female lead. This news had mixed messages in it, because the reboot was being referred to as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, implying the lead would be a new version of Buffy, but it was also said to be "building on the mythology of the original", implying that it would exist in the world of the previous series.
To try to clarify what this new series would be while still not being able to say much about it, Owusu-Breen took to her Twitter account to share the following message:
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, twenty 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.
So it sounds like Owusu-Breen and Whedon might be crafting a "twenty years later" follow-up that would center on a new vampire slayer… and maybe this new series won't end up being titled Buffy after all.
We'll have to continue to wait and see as more details are revealed.
The show is in development at Fox 21 Studios and will be pitching to streaming and cable networks this summer. Owusu-Breen will be writing and serving as showrunner, as well as executive producing alongside Whedon, Gail Berman, Fran Kazui, Kaz Kazui, and Joe Earley.