20th Century Fox announced last week that they were developing a reboot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the beloved supernatural drama series created by Joss Whedon which starred Sarah Michelle Gellar as the titular Slayer. While some were excited by the thought of Buffy returning in a new form, others questioned the need to reboot the iconic series at all. Showrunner Monica Owusu-Breen addresses those concerns on Twitter earlier today, and based on what she said, the Buffy project may be less of a reboot and more of a revival.
If the series does focus on a new Slayer, that would go a long way to alleviating some of the concerns which fans have had. Plus, I'd imagine that the actors who eventually join the series would breathe a sigh of relief knowing that they wouldn't be directly judged against their counterparts on the original series. Buffy: The Next Generation. It could work. Monica Owusu-Breen has quite the television resume, having previously worked on Charmed, Alias, Lost, Brothers & Sisters, Fringe, Revolution, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and Midnight, Texas, so I feel like she'll be able to pull this Buffy reboot/revival off.
Joss Whedon has lent his support to the project and will also serve as an executive-producer. The series is said to be "contemporary and build on the mythology of the original. Like today's world, the new Buffy will be richly diverse, with some aspects of the series, like the flagship, seen as metaphors for issues facing society today." It's still early in development, but the word is that producers are looking for an African American actress to step into the lead role.
Are you put at ease knowing that the new Buffy the Vampire Slayer series may not be a reboot? Or is the project still a bad idea?