Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans have been teased with an animated series before, but this amazing fan-made intro will make us yearn for what could have been!
When Buffy ended in 2003, there was still hope for the show to continue, in some form or another. Angel was still on the air, and fans were hoping for another spinoff, starring Eliza Dushku (Faith) or Anthony Stewart Head (Giles).
Or perhaps an animated series would have kept Buffy alive. Joss Whedon developed the concept back in 2002, plotting a series of episodes that would take place in season 1 (between episodes 7 and 8), and feature most of the major cast members voicing their characters.
While Giselle Loren would have voiced Buffy (as she did in the Chaos Bleeds video game), we would have had Alyson Hannigan, Nicholas Brendon and Anthony Stewart Head back as Willow, Xander and Giles.
But while the project was greenlit, no network was willing to pick up the series. Ultimately, it was incorporated into the Buffy comic book series.
This little teaser created to sell the show will make you realise just how awesome this could have been (and let’s face it, would still be if they did it today):
That’s certainly a better way to reboot the series than with a brand new cast!
And now, our nostalgia has been revived with this fan-made trailer for “The Animated Adventures of Buffy.” It wouldn’t be the same thing as the original idea, of course, but it’d be pretty damn awesome!
Created by Stephen Byrne, the trailer re-imagines the characters (but still sort of follows the style of the original animated Buffy concept).
A key difference is the setting: rather than taking us back to the early days of the show, we continue on from the season 7 finale. Spoiler alert: Xander has his eyepatch, Buffy is torn between Angel and Spike, and Dawn exists.
We can’t give this creation enough praise – way to blow fresh air into the Buffy fandom! Even Sarah Michelle Gellar has plugged it on her Twitter account.
Full of Whedonverse easter eggs (catch the Avengers and Firefly references?) and Buffy throwbacks, the trailer is obviously very well thought out, and an insane amount of time and effort must have gone into creating this masterpiece.
And the amount of praise and attention this trailer has been getting shows that the time – as always – is right for a return to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Let’s see this project picked up and realised!
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