SDCC 2018 and Whedonverse Spoilers follows.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer Reboot In The Works With New African American Lead.
Deadline reports:
- ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ Series Reboot With Black Lead In Works From Monica Owusu-Breen & Joss Whedon
One of the most beloved TV series of the past two decades, Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, is making a comeback. A reboot of the supernatural drama is in development at Fox 21 TV Studios, the cable/streaming division of 20th Century Fox TV, the studios behind the original series, which ran for seven seasons, first on the WB and then on UPN.
Midnight, Texas creator Monica Owusu-Breen has been tapped as writer, executive producer and showrunner of the new Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with the original series’ creator and showrunner Whedon set to executive produce alongside original series’ exec producers Gail Berman, Fran Kazui and Kaz Kazui as well as Joe Earley from Berman’s Jackal Group.
The new version, which will be pitched to streaming and cable networks this summer, will be contemporary, building on the mythology of the original. Per the producers: “Like our world, it will be richly diverse, and like the original, some aspects of the series could be seen as metaphors for issues facing us all today.”
According to sources, the diversity in the show’s description reflects the producers’ intention for the new slayer to be African American. The sources cautioned that the project is still in nascent stages with no script, and many details are still in flux.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which Whedon adapted from the 1992 feature he had written, helped establish him as a creator, Berman as a TV producer, star Sarah Michelle Gellar as a household name and the WB as a TV network. (Berman at the time ran Sandollar Television, which also is getting credit on the potential reboot.)…
