Another beloved 1990s property has jumped on the reboot train: Buffy the Vampire Slayer will be getting a fresh adaptation.

Update (July 26): Given that Buffy is such a beloved series, reaction from fans has been strong. Now, writer Monica Owusu-Breen has tweeted some comforting words:

For some genre writers it’s Star Wars.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is my Star Wars.

Before I became a writer, I was a fan. For seven seasons, I watched Buffy Summers grow up, find love, kill that love. I watched her fight, and struggle and slay.

There is only one Buffy. One Xander, one Willow, Giles, Cordelia, Oz, Tara, Kendra, Faith, Spike, Angel… They can’t be replaced. Joss Whedon’s brilliant and beautiful series can’t be replicated. I wouldn’t try to.

But here we are, twenty years later…
And the world seems a lot scarier.
So maybe, it could be time to meet a new Slayer….

And that’s all I can say.

Original Story (July 20): 20th Century Fox, which was behind the original Buffy series, is developing the reboot, reports THR. Joss Whedon, Buffy‘s creator, will serve as executive producer on the project. Agents of SHIELD‘s Monica Owusu-Breen, a woman of color, has been hired to pen the updated Buffy.

Perhaps most interesting, however, is that the Buffy reboot is seeking a black actress to play Buffy, a role made famous by Sarah Michelle Gellar.

Gail Berman, Joe Earley, Fran Kazui and Kaz Kazui (who produced the original Buffy film starring Kristy Swanson) will also serve as executive producers on the project. However, no network is attached to the project yet. It will be pitched to streaming and cable outlets later this summer.

THR writes that the new version “will be contemporary and build on the mythology of the original. Like today’s world, the new Buffy will be richly diverse, with some aspects of the series, like the flagship, seen as metaphors for issues facing society today.”

Fox has reportedly been trying to bring Buffy the Vampire Slayer back for a while now.

“It’s something we talk about frequently, and Joss Whedon is really one of the greatest creators we ever worked with,” said Fox TV group chair Gary Newman back in March. “When Joss decides it’s time, we’ll do it. And until Joss decides it’s time, it won’t happen.”

And apparently, Whedon has decided that it is time. Talks reportedly started back in the fall, and the decision to move forward was made when Owusu-Breen was hired as the writer.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer started out as a 1992 film starring Swanson, Luke Perry and Donald Sutherland. Whedon then moved the project to television, starting in 1997. The beloved series ran seven seasons and spawned a spinoff, Angel, that ran for five seasons.

The final episode of Buffy aired in 2003. The canon of the series has continued in comics; Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 12, which is slated to be the final season, started its run in June 2018.

Hypable’s podcast ReWatchable recently covered all seven seasons of Buffy and all five seasons of Angel. Find the episodes here.