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shadowkatApparently all it took was for Joss Whedon to get booted out of the Marvel-verse and the DC-verse, to go back to his own verse. They considered rebooting Firefly in 2017, but it's harder to reboot -- I think because too short lived and too small a fan base? (Apparently, he's not interested in going back there again?? I don't know. You'd think he would reboot that one first??)
From sueworld, got the link:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Series Reboot in Works with Black Female Lead and Monica-Owusu Breen and Joss Whedon Producing
Hmmm...IDK...this could be a good or bad thing. 98% of it depends on the writing. And Midnight, Texas and Marvel Agents of Shield were poorly written series that put me to sleep. I gave up on both really quickly. (It is worth noting that the first season of Buffy was hardly stellar. It didn't start taking off until the Second and Third Seasons.)
Also, why can't they come up with new series? Why reboot it?
OTOH...I am admittedly curious to see how they'd reboot it. Would they keep the same characters and dynamic, except with different actors and a more diverse cast? Could genders be flipped? How about LGBTQ casting and relationships? (You have to have diverse casting and diverse sexuality now, if you want anyone under the age of forty-five to watch. Gen X and the Baby Boomers grew up with all-white casting, the millenials grew up with diversified casting and have no patience for television shows that do not reflect the world we see daily. (Thank god). We had no choices. (Hello? Twelve Channels, maybe Twenty-Five if that in the 1970s-2005. Now we have over a million. ) They do.)
This could be really interesting.
Instead of a Single Mom raising Buffy, have a single Dad.
Giles be a female Watcher.
Flip the Genders on Xander and Willow.
Also Flip the Genders on Angel, Spike, Darla, and Drusilla.
Make it kinkier -- because if it goes on streaming, you can get away with that.
Have Buffy in College instead of high-school, and in a more urban environment.
There's possibilities.
I'm beginning to understand why they are wrapping up the Buffy comic verse now. (Although, the other reason is because sales were most likely dwindling. I could tell. They mentioned a Spike/Willow comic which never happened. And the number of issues for S11 dwindled, as they did for S12. Interest began to wane.)
Streaming also changes the whole story-telling dynamic. Shorter seasons. Higher production quality. More sex. Darker content. Older target audience. And no waiting between episodes. You can binge.
Mixed feelings.
That said? I wouldn't hold my breath. They teased about a Firefly reboot a year ago, after all. And someone has to pick it up (Buffy not Firefly). Buffy isn't as easy to reboot as it looks, it has a huge and rather entrenched fanbase who are all quite attached to the actors who'd formerly played the roles. You'd have to either attract new viewers and/or convince the existing ones to give it a try. Add to this, quite a few of those fans have become disillusioned by Joss Whedon, but still love Buffy and everything else involved with Buffy BUT Whedon. So...if the reboot only has Whedon and the executive producers of the original attached...the fans may not come aboard.
So, we shall see what happens. Don't get your hopes up though...or for that matter get too upset over it. Nothing is definite until we get an actual air date.
Does seem that after a long silence, and a lot of missteps, Whedon suddenly has a lot of interesting new balls in the air. A female detective series with an odd Swede-repelling name on Freeform. Some bizarre female action Victorian Steam Punk series on HBO, and now a Buffy reboot on streaming. He certainly landed on his feet? Didn't he? And been busy to boot.
From sueworld, got the link:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Series Reboot in Works with Black Female Lead and Monica-Owusu Breen and Joss Whedon Producing
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.
Hmmm...IDK...this could be a good or bad thing. 98% of it depends on the writing. And Midnight, Texas and Marvel Agents of Shield were poorly written series that put me to sleep. I gave up on both really quickly. (It is worth noting that the first season of Buffy was hardly stellar. It didn't start taking off until the Second and Third Seasons.)
Also, why can't they come up with new series? Why reboot it?
OTOH...I am admittedly curious to see how they'd reboot it. Would they keep the same characters and dynamic, except with different actors and a more diverse cast? Could genders be flipped? How about LGBTQ casting and relationships? (You have to have diverse casting and diverse sexuality now, if you want anyone under the age of forty-five to watch. Gen X and the Baby Boomers grew up with all-white casting, the millenials grew up with diversified casting and have no patience for television shows that do not reflect the world we see daily. (Thank god). We had no choices. (Hello? Twelve Channels, maybe Twenty-Five if that in the 1970s-2005. Now we have over a million. ) They do.)
This could be really interesting.
Instead of a Single Mom raising Buffy, have a single Dad.
Giles be a female Watcher.
Flip the Genders on Xander and Willow.
Also Flip the Genders on Angel, Spike, Darla, and Drusilla.
Make it kinkier -- because if it goes on streaming, you can get away with that.
Have Buffy in College instead of high-school, and in a more urban environment.
There's possibilities.
I'm beginning to understand why they are wrapping up the Buffy comic verse now. (Although, the other reason is because sales were most likely dwindling. I could tell. They mentioned a Spike/Willow comic which never happened. And the number of issues for S11 dwindled, as they did for S12. Interest began to wane.)
Streaming also changes the whole story-telling dynamic. Shorter seasons. Higher production quality. More sex. Darker content. Older target audience. And no waiting between episodes. You can binge.
Mixed feelings.
That said? I wouldn't hold my breath. They teased about a Firefly reboot a year ago, after all. And someone has to pick it up (Buffy not Firefly). Buffy isn't as easy to reboot as it looks, it has a huge and rather entrenched fanbase who are all quite attached to the actors who'd formerly played the roles. You'd have to either attract new viewers and/or convince the existing ones to give it a try. Add to this, quite a few of those fans have become disillusioned by Joss Whedon, but still love Buffy and everything else involved with Buffy BUT Whedon. So...if the reboot only has Whedon and the executive producers of the original attached...the fans may not come aboard.
So, we shall see what happens. Don't get your hopes up though...or for that matter get too upset over it. Nothing is definite until we get an actual air date.
Does seem that after a long silence, and a lot of missteps, Whedon suddenly has a lot of interesting new balls in the air. A female detective series with an odd Swede-repelling name on Freeform. Some bizarre female action Victorian Steam Punk series on HBO, and now a Buffy reboot on streaming. He certainly landed on his feet? Didn't he? And been busy to boot.
no subject
Date: 2018-07-21 01:33 pm (UTC)There are too few details out now (naturally), but I find it hard to imagine that I'd be interested in a new show.
no subject
Date: 2018-07-21 01:45 pm (UTC)For one thing it's still in the pitch stages. No one has picked up on it yet. They appear to be trying to drum up interest.
And, Disney is buying Fox, so all of this could change over night. (The deal hasn't gone completely through yet. But there's going to be some interesting shakeups. Look over at HBO and what is going on there with the AT&T's potential buyout of Time Warner.)
But yes, I fear it will be more like Agents of Sheild - or similar. Not all that interesting or appealing from a story perspective. And having seen this show-runner's previous effors -- Agents of Shield and Midnight, Texas...I don't have high hopes for the series.
That said, it should be noted that neither of us are the target audience for it. We're not the demographic they are aiming for here. ;-)
no subject
Date: 2018-07-22 04:46 pm (UTC)Like many I'd be completely for a story about a new slayer which is part of the canon anyway. I see no reason for a reboot of Buffy and company itself. But I do like your ideas:
"Instead of a Single Mom raising Buffy, have a single Dad.
Giles be a female Watcher.
Flip the Genders on Xander and Willow."
I suspect this will not change because of the targeted demo:
"Have Buffy in College instead of high-school, and in a more urban environment."
However I do agree that it becomes hard to imagine that kids wouldn't be more closely tracked today so that college would make much more sense. At the same time I'd guess that parents would be much more involved in this version.
"Make it kinkier -- because if it goes on streaming, you can get away with that."
Again, doubt it given the demo and the fact that it's not targeted for streaming as opposed to, potentially, Disney Family. But I'll bet that Joss will cover this on HBO with his Victorian
slayersseries.no subject
Date: 2018-07-22 05:21 pm (UTC)I think it's a windsock to test the market. And how people react to it. They are still in the planning stages, so they are sort of testing the water to see :
1) if there's still interest or even a market for it
2) who the market would be
3) which direction to go...continuation, whole new iteration, remake...
Again, doubt it given the demo and the fact that it's not targeted for streaming as opposed to, potentially, Disney Family.
Actually, more likely Freeform. Disney Family skews a lot younger. But according to the article -- they are planning are going with the streaming channels, such as Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon. I think if they get one of them -- it will most likely be Hulu, which has all the Fox and ABC content, and is owned by Disney and Fox at the moment. Disney is buying Fox in order to grab controlling share of Hulu and the Fox entertainment content such as Buffy.
And Freeform has some pretty dark stuff. Vampire Diaries went darker than Buffy did. So too has Supernatural in some respects. So the teen and tween genres have gone really dark in the last few years.
It's not clear from the article what demo they'll go for. Most of the fandom is the 18-45 demo.