Buffy Relaunch? Oh, Please No
For those that haven't heard, the Kuzuis (the couple that own the rights to 'Buffy') have expressed an interest in making another Buffy movie. That headline sounds exciting and wonderful, doesn't it? Don't get too excited, though, because of the following reasons:
- 1. They're planning it as a relaunch-not a prequel or a sequel to any existing '
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BtVS the TV series attracted people who never saw - or didn't like - the movie, because it did something different using the movie characters and set-up as a jumping off point. (Just as Stargate did.)
The trouble is that what *made* the series what it was, were the new elements. The characters of Giles and the Scoobies. The writing. The mythology/culture - and cultural references - and slang. That's what people are going to expect from any new additions to the franchise.
And given what Buffy *is* - its cult status, its place in popular perception, etc - fan expectations are going to matter. Given the availability of the DVDs, re-runs on TV, tie-in media, novelizations, the comics, etc; people who haven't watched/got into Buffy are - at this stage - people who didn't want to. That means any new addition must either cater to a brand new audience - or seek to gratify the existing fans. Or be different enough from the series to do both - without detracting from the series.
A Star Trek reboot works because it's so long since TOS - and because the universe already has several franchises, each of which attrated both fans of the specific series and Trek fans. There was scope there. But TNG did not try to copy the Kirk era, though: it reinvented the Enterprise and its crew.
New Who works because the Doctor is the Ninth/Tenth/Eleventh incarnation: one can watch without having seen the others, but it also works within the canon framework set up during the first 20/30 years the series ran. Some fans are discovering the Daleks and the Cybermen for the first time, others are revisiting childhood memories of hiding behind the sofa cushions during the scary scenes.
Stargate Atlantis (and maybe Universe) worked because it didn't try to be SG-1: you could watch both or either. (Like TNG, DS9, Voyager and Enterprise in the Star Trek universe.)
The many TMNT canons work because each brings something new: You can like the comics and the 1990 movie and the 2k3 cartoon, because each is clearly an AU, a re-imagination which keeps some elements and changes others, depending in part, on what works in each of the different media. They also work because the main audience is not re-discovering anything, but discovering the characters/world for the first time. A generation gap is somewhat smaller when things are targetted at under-13s.
But the breadth and depth of the seven seasons (and novels and comics) of the Buffy-verse is such that I don't think there's the same scope to make it similar but different. The TMNT 2k3-toon did not attempt to remake the Old Toon, or the Old Movies but to do something different, after all. It riffed off Mirage 1 - which was nearly 20 years old and a print media.
The only way to "reboot" Buffy *now* would be to make it not about Buffy per se: as you suggested, prequels of past Slayers, or post-series. Within the series mythology, existing Big Bads have been destroyed or neutered and we know too much about the main characters to see them written/played any other ways.
(I'm still sorry that "The Watcher - the series" staring ASH was never more than an idea.)
The franchise has potential for future development, but it isn't dormant, yet. Which means that you either have to go with what already exists, or make a spin off.
As unenthusiastic as I am about Stargate:Universe (which seems to me to be "Lost in Space" with Stargate mythology) at least they're not trying to remake SG-1 with a new, younger team. That seems to be the parallel to what the Buffy owners are proposing.
I really, really hate the idea of a Buffy relaunch at this stage. I don't miss Buffy yet - it hasn't dated/aged enough to *need* re-imagining.
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