With the success of Spider-Man No Way Home, the long-awaited Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series can take notes on how to use the multiverse for a reboot. With the introduction of the multiverse in the Tom Holland Marvel hit, Spider-Man viewers were given a sense of nostalgia when Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield made their appearances. The multiverse also allowed for new rules to be created and not be bound tightly with its original narratives.
While the reboot is currently in a holding pattern in the midst of the Joss Whedon allegations, showrunner Monica Owusu-Breen intends on having the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series reboot set in the modern day with the modern-day Buffy set to shine a light on modern-day issues, putting diversity at the forefront of its slayer mission. Back in 2018, the show was intended to cast its first Black lead actress, setting itself apart from the predominantly white casting of its predecessor. Today’s comics of Buffy the Vampire Slayer have introduced their own multiverse or “Slayerverse” which creates different timelines where new narratives can be explored, similar to how it was done in Spider-Man: No Way Home. In doing so, No Way Home can be a blueprint for how Buffy can bring this new world of Slayers into being.
How A Buffy Multiverse Can Work On TV
A Buffy multiverse on television would allow for a continuation of the story, a sequel in its own right as Owusu-Breen intends, where everything that viewers know can still exist and potentially take place elsewhere in another universe. Similar to Spider-Man: No Way Home, a Buffy the Vampire Slayer multiverse could open up the possibility of having some fan favorites come back to reprise their roles. However, the multiverse does not have to be limited to the original actors reprising their roles as the same characters can exist in the universe with a different actor. Original Buffy star Sarah Michelle Gellar stated she has no intention of ever returning, but that’s okay because another Buffy can exist elsewhere, and she can even be a person of color. Everything that has been done in the Buffy series can be undone or completely revamped. Storylines can also exist elsewhere in the madness of Buffy‘s multiverse without the show being entirely bound to it.
In one timeline of the Slayerverse, Buffy’s best friend Xander exists as a queer man. In another universe, a side character can be at the front and center; the main protagonist can exist as a villain. According to the producers, viewers are likely to expect that, “aspects of the series could be seen as metaphors for issues facing us all today.” The heart of the late ’90s supernatural drama already touched on issues of today, which could explain why so many viewers tuned in. In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy loses her mother to cancer, raises her younger sister alone, falls behind academically while her night-to-night job is fighting crime, struggles to pay bills, not to mention the toxic romantic tropes that Buffy endured. All of these aspects as a source of inspiration for the Buffy franchise can be applicable to any iteration of a vampire slayer and her gang.
A Buffy Slayerverse Is The Best Way To Pass The Torch
A Slayerverse in Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a perfect way to balance paying homage to the original series but also allowing for further expansion, just as Spider-Man: No Way Home paid homage to the Spider-Men of yore while making it clear it’s Tom Holland’s show now. Today’s visual and special effects have long improved since, and television standards of storytelling have also evolved, which includes the amount of inclusion that is portrayed in American television. If the rules of multiverse narratives have fewer restraints then it also opens up the space for even a queer person of color to portray Xander or any othered group to carry the torch. With Twentieth Century acquired by Disney, a Buffy reboot can expect metaphors that are commentaries on today’s issues such as inequality, injustice, division, and economic turmoil factored into the demon crime-fighting franchise.
