Given the hellfire that’s come to define the year of our lord 2020, it makes sense that many of us are seeking comfort in nostalgia. Whether that’s gazing with embarrassed fondness at our old terrible 00s indie music taste, resurrecting noughties films like Twilight on our FYPs, or remembering nostalgic TV faves, it’s been a year for the archives. Following the news that The Powerpuff Girls and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air have modern day reboots in the works, we now have some more information on the long-awaited Buffy The Vampire Slayer update, first announced all the way back in 2018 (known better as ‘the simpler times’).
Led by Joss Whedon (who wrote the film the series was based on, and executive produced said series), with producer and screenwriter Monica Owusu-Breen as showrunner, the Buffy reboot promises to be a more “richly diverse” iteration of the original in terms of casting. In fact, the titular character — originally portrayed by Sarah Michelle Gellar — will be played by a woman of colour in the upcoming reboot, Ashley Benson (who played Tara) recently revealed to Digital Spy.
“I was so excited because Joss (Whedon) was involved, a woman of colour was going to be running the show, and Buffy was going to be a woman of colour,” she said. “I thought that was really important.”
Revealing that she would also be down for a Buffy 2.0 cameo, Ashley went on to lament the lack of diversity in the original show. “So Buffy — it had some diversity,” the actress said. “But I feel like it could have had more. And that was just the time. That sort of onus wasn’t on the creative world to show the world in a diverse way. I would very much like to see Buffy in a diverse world. I think it would be a really amazing thing.”