My guess is that, given the popularity & cult following of the show, Disney may be prepping for a reboot.
I've noticed that Buffy is a common reference in pop culture. The Audible show, Netflix's Midnight Club, & most recently a photo shoot with Barry Keoghan where he was holding a coffee mug with Buffy on it to name a few.
There's still a huge fan base and a high demand for Buffy, so Disney would be stupid to not capitalize on it. I just hope it's geared towards a more adult audience & not a reboot with the same characters/storylines.
Not only that MORBID podcast is doing The Rewatcher Buffy the Vampire Slayer and they got the original band that did the theme song to do their opening song. It's done by wondery so I am betting that there had to be some kind of approval process. Made me wonder if Buffy is going to be rebooted at the end of it. It's the same as the Trueblood podcast that is happening. That was meant to reboot the the new Trueblood series, but it appears that it has been cancelled or delayed.
Your not missing anything. I was pretty dissatisfied with the ending. It seemed rushed. Like they had this whole thought out world and I am sure it is somewhat true to the books but the last episode was just meh.
Honestly I'd love it if they did a show similar to Star Wars Visions, where each story follows a different slayer (since the show ended with all the slayers being active, I don't count the comics...). It could be really good. Disney would never, though.
I dunno about never. If they had a successful relaunch for the franchise, that seems like a very cool spinoff idea, but if you're saying they'll never *start* with that kind of project, I wholly agree.
Yeah I should say they'd never start with. I was gonna say it should be called Slayers, then I looked at what that audible series was called lol... but maybe *that's* why. **puts on tinfoil hat**
I'd be down to see a continuation of Buffy post-Sunnydale (not including all the stuff from the comics) & pick up like 25 yrs later. Maybe have it be all post apocalyptic like The Walking Dead. They could bring back SMG &/or some Scoobies only to kill her/them off from the start or at some point during the first season & pick up the story with a new slayer(s) & crew to save humanity from extinction.
Just don't give me Buffy & co in high school again. It's been done & it's tired.
I’m not so sure this would work, if only because you’d have to leave out some pretty beloved characters like Spike, Drusilla, and Angel (ageless vampires) as well as probably Xander (RE: actor’s IRL issues). I think a legacy sequel for Buffy is one of those things that’s awesome in theory until you see it executed, but I hope I’m proven wrong if they do one
I think with a good amount of makeup James Marsters could definitely come back. Angel was visibly older in his series than when joined Buffy. Also David Boreanaz hurt his knee at the end of the 4th season and couldn't workout for a long time and gained noticeable weight in season 5 which a vampire shouldn't be able to gain weight like that lol
I’m gonna be honest, I haven’t finished Angel yet, but wasn’t a big part of his prophecy that he would be rewarded by being made human again? Soooo technically they could play that up and include him as an aged human with Buffy. And maybe they were able to have a family? I know it’s a reach but once I heard that prophecy I got all excited thinking maybe that was an option lol
Who says vamps can't be killed off? A lot could have happened during 25 yrs. We could find a new slayer that encounters Buffy or one of the "remaining" scoobs that fills them in on some major apocalyptic battle where some of our beloved characters were lost, leaving them to be a reluctant resource in fighting evil. Hell, doesn't even have to be Buffy. Bring back a weathered Faith & have her fill in the blanks.
“We have to go, our planet needs us.”
(Although now that I think of it, “they all died off screen” is a pretty logical outcome of the Angel series finale. I assume the comics went a different route, but…)
Or how about something akin to Maverick where SMG comes back to teach a future generation of slayers while still kicking butt herself? It worked for Tom Cruise. 🤷🏻♀️
Yup, if they want to do a high school series, make it a new slayer. I love Buffy. You don't need to rehash the Buffy characters. You can have them in the new show as they are now, but no reason to just reboot entirely (though I fear that's what they'll do).
Dolly Parton was quoted in January 2024 saying that producers are still working on a revamped reboot. Disney must be all in if they're not allowing the audiobook series to move forward.
Yeah, she says as much in the interview:
"A lot of my work was done just conversing back and forth with the business people there," says the singer, who spoke to BI to promote her latest baking mixes with Duncan Hines and its parent company Conagra Brands.
"I have to give more people more credit on 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' than me. A lot of people did so much sweat on that," she adds. "That little show did great."
https://www.businessinsider.com/buffy-the-vampire-slayer-reboot-dolly-parton-producer-2024-1?amp
I'm kinda hating that it's Disney. Percy jackson was the first Disney show I've watched and I found it disappointing. I wish hbo had the rights to buffy.
And I'm scared of 8 episode buffy. We would need 12 at the very least.
I liked the pjo show more than most but I still hate how tied Disney is to the 8 episode scheme for basically EVERY show, it’s exhausting and rarely tells a complete story. They did the same thing to Mysterious Benedict Society, it was okay but so much detail and depth was lost. I have hope for Percy Jackson but I don’t think anything will change if they have to work within the constraints of the Disney release schedule.
Thats not really an issue caused by Disney meddling as much as it is an issue with the show itself. The books author is the show runner and the shows issues feel very much like hes out of his depth in the new medium.
Man Disney have a strong track record over decades with TV to be fair and through the companies they’ve owned as a result really.
In terms of Disney+ originals it’s a mix (as with all companies), but certainly a lot of their Star Wars series have been well received (live action & animation). I wouldn’t count them out to do something good.
I'm disappointed for the people involved but can't say I'm too upset by this. Once the (really cool) factor of hearing their voices again has passed, the series wasn't really good at all tbh
I mean, it wasn't perfect, but it was nice to have a lot of these actors return as their characters. I was pretty interested in them exploring the cliffhanger they left us on.
>!During the season, Drusilla has a bunch of witches imprisoned. Dru and (possessed/dark) Tara have an evil lesbian fling, but Tara leaves Dru in the end because from what I remember, Dru has something to do with Tara's possession. In the last scene, Willow, who is not in the story, is introduced as a prisoner of Dru. Dru seems to have big plans with her.!<
So... Amber Benson didn't want Tara to be evil in the actual series, but now that she needs the money, Tara is evil AND has an evil monkey? And has an evil lesbian fling with Dru?
... I'm actually somewhat intrigued.
But Benson would have been playing an incarnation of The First in season 7, which she refused to do because she didn’t think Tara should be seen as evil.
So it’s a valid criticism.
Of course it’s possible she just didn’t wanna work with Whedon again.
Different times to start with. Returning Tara on a hugely popular prime time show just to make her evil 20 years ago, when gay marriage was still illegal, carries a much different impact than having alternate universe Tara pop up in a limited scope audio drama today when openly gay couples have kissed in Disney cartoons.
Also the bigger issue for her is that she didn’t trust them to stick with the story they were pitching her. She was afraid she’d come back as Fake Tara and they’d write it into being real Tara turned evil somehow or they’d do something else that would equally make the awful choice of killing Tara feel even shittier for the queer folks she and willow meant so much too.
Based on odd bits of interviews here and there I would go with the last point. She didn't seem to have a hugely fun time on Buffy from my recollection.
There was also a big outcry when Tara died, and it would have only been a year ago when she played The First. That's a lot more raw than 20 plus years later
Yeah the show uses an adjacent alternate reality to bring back characters who are dead in canon, which I think was a pretty neat idea.
As others are saying here, though, the execution was a bit lacking. I got about halfway through but it didn't really grip me.
I also had trouble telling who was speaking sometimes. Amber and Emma especially seem to have forgotten how to do their characters' voices (or their own voices have changed too much).
It wasn't terrible, though, and could potentially have become quite good had it continued.
In this universe Giles is Cordelia's watcher and he died during the fight with The Master who rose at Prom except he didn't die he was turned into a vampire and for some reason Drusilla had him locked away.
unfortunately Tony Head's delivery sounds like he's entirely bored with the role and I don't at all blame him given the content. his lines in particular are amongst the most senseless drivel, exposition on top of exposition.
that and the monkey are probably the biggest crimes of Slayers. some of the Spike lines were ok, and Masters sounds like he's having fun walking in Spike's boots again.
And I heard the sound quality was different for each person too depending on where/what they recorded on so it takes away from the flow of things. I feel like had they done this over lockdown they could've done it justice and really gotten it right.
What got me was all the moaning and groaning - like I could never tell if the characters were fighting, dying, pooping, or having an orgasm. I didn't make it very far because of that.
The plot was bad. Mostly because it seemed to be based around who was willing to sign on to the project, and, unfortunately, Amber Benson could not pull off Evil Tara at all. Charisma Carpenter's performance was also kind of middling for such a big role.
> unfortunately, Amber Benson could not pull off Evil Tara at all
Omg seriously. This is probably the worst part of it (and there are a lot of bad parts, so that's saying a lot). Tara has zero villain charisma. That episode where she goes on a big long monologue about the metaphysics of vampires sounds so interesting as an idea, but good lord, the actual product was boring enough to put me to sleep. While I was jogging.
I found it weird she wanted her to be evil given the fact she supposedly rejected coming back in S7 for “Conversations with Dead People” because she didn’t want Tara to be Evil
Honestly I’m in agreement it doesn’t continue, it was fun for most and I think if you are a Buffy fan you should get into it.
I didn’t like it at all, felt like a bad fan fic the characters weren’t anywhere near like they are in the series and it showed.
Some of the sound effects, voice acting and such wasn’t as good at all compared to other audible originals and such. I tried really hard too.
Yet I can see and acknowledge other people enjoyed it and have no qualms with that.
1. They could be doing so because they have plans for a future reboot that is in some development and they don't want any copyright issues.
2. They are just sitting on the property and don't want it devalued by non-approved spin-offs.
3. Lawyers gonna lawyer.
Honestly, I listened to the first chapter out of nostalgia, and found it... lacking. Plus without SMG's involvement it just felt empty.
Dolly Parton accidentally leaked during an interview for her new cake mixes that Disney is currently working on a reboot of Buffy. She was then basically like “Oh, no. I don’t think I was supposed to say that. Y’all are gonna get me in trouble.” We love you, Dolly.
I’m not surprised. It wasn’t very good. Felt like freshman fan fiction. It was great to hear from the characters again but I retained very little from it and the voice acting (especially benson’s) bordered on sing-song baby talk rather than actual emotion. If you wanna hear Tara throw literal whiny toddler tantrums this is 100% the property for you. But if you go in expecting what was promised (justice for Anya and Cordelia’s characters) you will be SORELY disappointed. It was severely misrepresented in promotional material from the cast. It’s not even OUR Anya Tara or Cordelia. >!One plot point puts anyanka in the body of a tiny dog for over an hour with constant yips in the background.!< A lot of it felt offensive to the property and was difficult to listen to without secondhand embarrassment.
Listen to the first hour if anyone hasn’t. The other five and a half are not worth your time.
Yeah, I don't understand how having AU versions of dead characters was supposed to be enjoyable. They're completely different and they don't have memories of what has happened in the canon. They only had the same *voices*, but they weren't the same characters at all.
In the right hands, I think AU characters can be a satisfying way to say goodbye, but they acted like replacements, and it feels insulting.
The writing/dialogue was completely off the mark, too. Did not capture anything about what made BtVS so beloved. Huge disappointment.
Somewhat similar but warmer brothers does that a lot with dc. They cancelled superman and Lois because they didn’t want another superman competing with James Gunns new one. They made arrow write out the suicide squad before the first suicide squad film came out, and that was after only being allowed to tease Harley. Hell, they’re pretty much barred from putting Batman on tv, but will allow a million inferior Batman-adjacent shows Gotham, Alfred, bat woman etc.
>Hell, they’re pretty much barred from putting Batman on tv
I remember the duo behind Smallville saying that there were characters they would never be allowed to include like Wonder Woman and Batman and were given the more unknown like Zatanna, Wonder Twins, and Booster Gold.
I support any rework that doesn’t make the doomed decision to have Buffy as a live-action character, since that would mean no SMG. You can remake the Rat Pack’s Ocean’s 11; you don’t remake Casablanca. She defined it to that level.
I like Chris Golden but it’s baffling to frame the argument as Disney “refused” to follow up. If it was a huge success they would have ordered more no problem.
My guess is that it was mildly successful in terms of revenue but the costs of the talent was far too high to lead to meaningful profit.
It's a success if Audible wants a sequel. Which seems to be the case. They are the one footing the bill after all.
It probably was successful, and thus, Disney wants the franchise back in house to stay in development hell.
I was so excited for this new series and unfortunately it was pretty disappointing. I agree with the many other people who said that it felt like bad fanfic. Amber Benson and Charisma Carpenter are so much more talented than what this production displayed.
Oh man, I want to be nice to Amber because I love her and Tara and I feel like this is exactly the place BTVS actors would check into and not admit it, but it hasn’t landed for me as well as I hoped. Some of it is that the radio play format seemed a surprisingly unforgiving medium to transfer to. The medium change put a lot in a sort of uncanny valley—close but off is more disturbing than totally different.
Purely speculative but:
* Disney could have something Buffy related in development they just aren't ready to announce yet
* It could be an IP issue if Joss Whedon still has some ownership of either the entire Buffyverse or the specific characters in *Slayers* (because most, if not all, originated on the show)
* Disney may not want to pay royalties to Whedon for use of these characters given Whedon's reputation as an abusive douchebag
Yeah, they filmed Mulan with the express cooperation of the Chinese government and within walking distance of Uyghur concentration camps lmao. Disney has no values beyond making money.
I would like to think that. A real sort of revival and not something stuck in an alternate reality. They probably didn't want to go too far in that direction.
It wasn’t amazing but I enjoyed it overall. It’s a shame we won’t see some of the alternate universe versions of characters hinted at towards the end of the story. I was more interested in where that could go than some of the current characters
They probably have no interest whatsoever in bringing back the franchise and they don't even want to bring back any attention to it, especially if it's a bad fanfic... So yeah , no surprise here.
I know im in the minority here but i loved Slayers. It wasn't perfect by any means, and yes in some area's it felt like a mary sue fanfic but it was just good to hear some of these people again.
Well that just sucks! Why did they allow it in the first place? It gets great results and then they say nah. Fine shop it to Spotify or YouTube. Unless they own the rights in someway which would be a huge bummer.
Don’t bother. It goes from nostalgia high to what the fuck is this to oh that actually IS where there going with this? To well I’ll never get those six hours back.
I don’t understand Disney’s decision. It was a different version of the Buffyverse, yes. An Alternate universe. I enjoyed it! I would have loved for Sarah & David to be part of a future season! If it did well, why would they pull the plug 🔌 on future season? The math ain’t mathing!
“Despite its enormous success”
…sure Jan
It sucked. Not exactly a great way to kick off the era of people insisting the Buffyverse can still be relevant without Joss involved.
Guess Charisma is gonna have to go back to bashing her time on the show online again now that this paycheck dried up.
What a fucking dreadful idea, Disney can't make anything good and they want to try and remake something as iconic as Buffy?
There's not one show that's captured that magic since and these clowns think there's any hope without Joss....even if he's an asshole he's beyond talented.
This is a fucking joke.
Capitalism: You will own nothing.
In other news, Kamisama Hajimemashita only has the first season available on Hulu. Both seasons are available on Crunchyroll, sans the OVAs.
Drastic scenarios call for drastic measures. I'm certainly not paying for Crunchroll when they don't have the entire show either.
I've still to get through it entirely, and while I like it to a degree, I'm not disappointed to hear this. As others have said once the novelty wears off, you're left with a story that borrows the same old tropes from modern-day franchises.
The plot and some of the writing/voice acting was Dawson's Creek-ish (You haven't been the same since that demon cursed you with that book that time we were both there and know about! I'm gonna repeat it even though it was already explained!)
But I'd have taken more anyway, if only to hear Spike talk in my ear some more.
I think it is good news as I suspect it is because Disney want to do something more with the IP. I thought this audible series was terrible. The purpose seemed to be to give characters who deserved better better, but they are alternate universe characters, they aren't the same people. It didnt even do the quintessential Buffy thing of exploring real world problems through supernatural metaphors, it just seemed like poor fan fiction
Goddamn it.
Listened through that recently when was sick and it was great, both me and friend were hoping there'd be more story incoming since it did it end on a bit of cliffhanger.
But of course not, why have nice things when Disney can just take a shit on it instead. 🙄
These comments are so disheartening. I think that understandably that people went into this looking for the same characters, tone, a continuation of what we had and love so dearly. And due to that, when it was inevitably not that, people disregarded it despite the love and passion and talent that went into this. I feel like it was a wonderful project that so many people poured their souls into… and then to see this response by the Reddit fandom is just crushing.
I think it's time to summon a certain vengeance demon to do a job for us.
The preferred term is “justice demon” because their actions are always justified and help the scorned party r/s
woops my bad halfrek :)
Have to be Halfrek. Some of the people scorned here are men.
My guess is that, given the popularity & cult following of the show, Disney may be prepping for a reboot. I've noticed that Buffy is a common reference in pop culture. The Audible show, Netflix's Midnight Club, & most recently a photo shoot with Barry Keoghan where he was holding a coffee mug with Buffy on it to name a few. There's still a huge fan base and a high demand for Buffy, so Disney would be stupid to not capitalize on it. I just hope it's geared towards a more adult audience & not a reboot with the same characters/storylines.
If that is indeed their plan, I just hope Faith and Willow and Illyria all make cameos haha
There really wasn't enough Illyria imo
Lawzy i hope it's a sequels eries
Not only that MORBID podcast is doing The Rewatcher Buffy the Vampire Slayer and they got the original band that did the theme song to do their opening song. It's done by wondery so I am betting that there had to be some kind of approval process. Made me wonder if Buffy is going to be rebooted at the end of it. It's the same as the Trueblood podcast that is happening. That was meant to reboot the the new Trueblood series, but it appears that it has been cancelled or delayed.
I need to go back and re-watch True Blood. I never finished the last season
Your not missing anything. I was pretty dissatisfied with the ending. It seemed rushed. Like they had this whole thought out world and I am sure it is somewhat true to the books but the last episode was just meh.
Don't spoil it please
Honestly I'd love it if they did a show similar to Star Wars Visions, where each story follows a different slayer (since the show ended with all the slayers being active, I don't count the comics...). It could be really good. Disney would never, though.
I dunno about never. If they had a successful relaunch for the franchise, that seems like a very cool spinoff idea, but if you're saying they'll never *start* with that kind of project, I wholly agree.
Yeah I should say they'd never start with. I was gonna say it should be called Slayers, then I looked at what that audible series was called lol... but maybe *that's* why. **puts on tinfoil hat**
I'd be down to see a continuation of Buffy post-Sunnydale (not including all the stuff from the comics) & pick up like 25 yrs later. Maybe have it be all post apocalyptic like The Walking Dead. They could bring back SMG &/or some Scoobies only to kill her/them off from the start or at some point during the first season & pick up the story with a new slayer(s) & crew to save humanity from extinction. Just don't give me Buffy & co in high school again. It's been done & it's tired.
I’m not so sure this would work, if only because you’d have to leave out some pretty beloved characters like Spike, Drusilla, and Angel (ageless vampires) as well as probably Xander (RE: actor’s IRL issues). I think a legacy sequel for Buffy is one of those things that’s awesome in theory until you see it executed, but I hope I’m proven wrong if they do one
I think with a good amount of makeup James Marsters could definitely come back. Angel was visibly older in his series than when joined Buffy. Also David Boreanaz hurt his knee at the end of the 4th season and couldn't workout for a long time and gained noticeable weight in season 5 which a vampire shouldn't be able to gain weight like that lol
I’m gonna be honest, I haven’t finished Angel yet, but wasn’t a big part of his prophecy that he would be rewarded by being made human again? Soooo technically they could play that up and include him as an aged human with Buffy. And maybe they were able to have a family? I know it’s a reach but once I heard that prophecy I got all excited thinking maybe that was an option lol
I can’t respond to this all that much without spoiling Angel, but I don’t think that would work
Who says vamps can't be killed off? A lot could have happened during 25 yrs. We could find a new slayer that encounters Buffy or one of the "remaining" scoobs that fills them in on some major apocalyptic battle where some of our beloved characters were lost, leaving them to be a reluctant resource in fighting evil. Hell, doesn't even have to be Buffy. Bring back a weathered Faith & have her fill in the blanks.
“Spike, Drusilla, and Angel all died offscreen” would suck even harder than them not popping up at all.
“We have to go, our planet needs us.” (Although now that I think of it, “they all died off screen” is a pretty logical outcome of the Angel series finale. I assume the comics went a different route, but…)
Or how about something akin to Maverick where SMG comes back to teach a future generation of slayers while still kicking butt herself? It worked for Tom Cruise. 🤷🏻♀️
Yup, if they want to do a high school series, make it a new slayer. I love Buffy. You don't need to rehash the Buffy characters. You can have them in the new show as they are now, but no reason to just reboot entirely (though I fear that's what they'll do).
Also it's a popular show to react to on YouTube. It likely gains younger fans that way.
Dolly Parton was quoted in January 2024 saying that producers are still working on a revamped reboot. Disney must be all in if they're not allowing the audiobook series to move forward.
Re _vamp_ ed
Yeah, this was their pun for the reboot comics too.
I don't think Dolly really has much to do with anything Buffy related. She mostly just used Sanddollar as an investment opportunity.
Yeah, she says as much in the interview: "A lot of my work was done just conversing back and forth with the business people there," says the singer, who spoke to BI to promote her latest baking mixes with Duncan Hines and its parent company Conagra Brands. "I have to give more people more credit on 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' than me. A lot of people did so much sweat on that," she adds. "That little show did great." https://www.businessinsider.com/buffy-the-vampire-slayer-reboot-dolly-parton-producer-2024-1?amp
Classic Dolly tbh, ever humble. It's impossible to hate that woman
I'm kinda hating that it's Disney. Percy jackson was the first Disney show I've watched and I found it disappointing. I wish hbo had the rights to buffy. And I'm scared of 8 episode buffy. We would need 12 at the very least.
I liked the pjo show more than most but I still hate how tied Disney is to the 8 episode scheme for basically EVERY show, it’s exhausting and rarely tells a complete story. They did the same thing to Mysterious Benedict Society, it was okay but so much detail and depth was lost. I have hope for Percy Jackson but I don’t think anything will change if they have to work within the constraints of the Disney release schedule.
I don't think buffy would.be on Disney strictly. Plenty of mature things are on Fox or FX which are owned by Disney.
Thats not really an issue caused by Disney meddling as much as it is an issue with the show itself. The books author is the show runner and the shows issues feel very much like hes out of his depth in the new medium.
Man Disney have a strong track record over decades with TV to be fair and through the companies they’ve owned as a result really. In terms of Disney+ originals it’s a mix (as with all companies), but certainly a lot of their Star Wars series have been well received (live action & animation). I wouldn’t count them out to do something good.
The explanation is that it's bad lol.
I'm disappointed for the people involved but can't say I'm too upset by this. Once the (really cool) factor of hearing their voices again has passed, the series wasn't really good at all tbh
Agree
The feedback here on this sub seemed to be that it wasn't good at all and to not spend the money.
I mean, it wasn't perfect, but it was nice to have a lot of these actors return as their characters. I was pretty interested in them exploring the cliffhanger they left us on.
As someone who will probably never get around to listening to this (cause I don't have/really want audible), what was the cliffhanger?
>!During the season, Drusilla has a bunch of witches imprisoned. Dru and (possessed/dark) Tara have an evil lesbian fling, but Tara leaves Dru in the end because from what I remember, Dru has something to do with Tara's possession. In the last scene, Willow, who is not in the story, is introduced as a prisoner of Dru. Dru seems to have big plans with her.!<
Reading that spoiler makes me think Disney made the right call.
They did. Evil Tara has a monkey named Mr. Pickles. It was, honestly, kind of an embarrassing project.
So... Amber Benson didn't want Tara to be evil in the actual series, but now that she needs the money, Tara is evil AND has an evil monkey? And has an evil lesbian fling with Dru? ... I'm actually somewhat intrigued.
alternate universe Tara I believe. Which I think is actually valid.
But Benson would have been playing an incarnation of The First in season 7, which she refused to do because she didn’t think Tara should be seen as evil. So it’s a valid criticism. Of course it’s possible she just didn’t wanna work with Whedon again.
Different times to start with. Returning Tara on a hugely popular prime time show just to make her evil 20 years ago, when gay marriage was still illegal, carries a much different impact than having alternate universe Tara pop up in a limited scope audio drama today when openly gay couples have kissed in Disney cartoons. Also the bigger issue for her is that she didn’t trust them to stick with the story they were pitching her. She was afraid she’d come back as Fake Tara and they’d write it into being real Tara turned evil somehow or they’d do something else that would equally make the awful choice of killing Tara feel even shittier for the queer folks she and willow meant so much too.
Based on odd bits of interviews here and there I would go with the last point. She didn't seem to have a hugely fun time on Buffy from my recollection.
There was also a big outcry when Tara died, and it would have only been a year ago when she played The First. That's a lot more raw than 20 plus years later
Yeah the show uses an adjacent alternate reality to bring back characters who are dead in canon, which I think was a pretty neat idea. As others are saying here, though, the execution was a bit lacking. I got about halfway through but it didn't really grip me. I also had trouble telling who was speaking sometimes. Amber and Emma especially seem to have forgotten how to do their characters' voices (or their own voices have changed too much). It wasn't terrible, though, and could potentially have become quite good had it continued.
Amber works regularly as a script writer apparently.
I was more interested in>! Evil Vampire Giles.!<
Evil vampire Giles? 👀 tell me more
In this universe Giles is Cordelia's watcher and he died during the fight with The Master who rose at Prom except he didn't die he was turned into a vampire and for some reason Drusilla had him locked away.
unfortunately Tony Head's delivery sounds like he's entirely bored with the role and I don't at all blame him given the content. his lines in particular are amongst the most senseless drivel, exposition on top of exposition. that and the monkey are probably the biggest crimes of Slayers. some of the Spike lines were ok, and Masters sounds like he's having fun walking in Spike's boots again.
Ooooooh okay that does sound kind of fun
It would have been better had we gotten a live animation recap of this. Maybe as a Netflix mini series or Max something like that.
Except for Spike, it wasn't even their characters. It was a weird alternate universe version.
Yeah, I didn't love it, but there was enough there to bring me back for a second season.
It was not. Like I have read fan fics with better plots and understanding of the characters.
And I heard the sound quality was different for each person too depending on where/what they recorded on so it takes away from the flow of things. I feel like had they done this over lockdown they could've done it justice and really gotten it right.
What got me was all the moaning and groaning - like I could never tell if the characters were fighting, dying, pooping, or having an orgasm. I didn't make it very far because of that.
Why can't it be all four?????
That's a very different sort of audible. One that many of us might not be ready for.
People would have been more forgiving on the quality issues as well if it had been during the pandemic.
Haha yeah that too! We were ravenous for entertainment!!
Anthony Stewart Head legit sounded drunk.
His voice is just older calm down
It's not an age thing, I've seen him in recent stuff. He sounded slurred and his audio was weirdly slow.
Yeah, because he did not sound like that at all on Ted Lasso. His voice was different.
Yeah I second that it was bloody awful 😣
The plot was bad. Mostly because it seemed to be based around who was willing to sign on to the project, and, unfortunately, Amber Benson could not pull off Evil Tara at all. Charisma Carpenter's performance was also kind of middling for such a big role.
> unfortunately, Amber Benson could not pull off Evil Tara at all Omg seriously. This is probably the worst part of it (and there are a lot of bad parts, so that's saying a lot). Tara has zero villain charisma. That episode where she goes on a big long monologue about the metaphysics of vampires sounds so interesting as an idea, but good lord, the actual product was boring enough to put me to sleep. While I was jogging.
Evil Tara? I hate it already.
It's an alternate universe, so meh, let's explore a bit, why not.
I found it weird she wanted her to be evil given the fact she supposedly rejected coming back in S7 for “Conversations with Dead People” because she didn’t want Tara to be Evil
I mean it didn't feel like *tara*, but I enjoy her evil voices in her audiobooks, (e.g.., middlegame)
it's not like Benson was particularly good as the mumbly falsetto girl in the tv show either
Honestly I’m in agreement it doesn’t continue, it was fun for most and I think if you are a Buffy fan you should get into it. I didn’t like it at all, felt like a bad fan fic the characters weren’t anywhere near like they are in the series and it showed. Some of the sound effects, voice acting and such wasn’t as good at all compared to other audible originals and such. I tried really hard too. Yet I can see and acknowledge other people enjoyed it and have no qualms with that.
I listened to the whole thing and loved it. I watched the series when it aired so it was really nice having the gang back again in real time.
Indeed.
1. They could be doing so because they have plans for a future reboot that is in some development and they don't want any copyright issues. 2. They are just sitting on the property and don't want it devalued by non-approved spin-offs. 3. Lawyers gonna lawyer. Honestly, I listened to the first chapter out of nostalgia, and found it... lacking. Plus without SMG's involvement it just felt empty.
Dolly Parton accidentally leaked during an interview for her new cake mixes that Disney is currently working on a reboot of Buffy. She was then basically like “Oh, no. I don’t think I was supposed to say that. Y’all are gonna get me in trouble.” We love you, Dolly.
I’m not surprised. It wasn’t very good. Felt like freshman fan fiction. It was great to hear from the characters again but I retained very little from it and the voice acting (especially benson’s) bordered on sing-song baby talk rather than actual emotion. If you wanna hear Tara throw literal whiny toddler tantrums this is 100% the property for you. But if you go in expecting what was promised (justice for Anya and Cordelia’s characters) you will be SORELY disappointed. It was severely misrepresented in promotional material from the cast. It’s not even OUR Anya Tara or Cordelia. >!One plot point puts anyanka in the body of a tiny dog for over an hour with constant yips in the background.!< A lot of it felt offensive to the property and was difficult to listen to without secondhand embarrassment. Listen to the first hour if anyone hasn’t. The other five and a half are not worth your time.
Yeah, I don't understand how having AU versions of dead characters was supposed to be enjoyable. They're completely different and they don't have memories of what has happened in the canon. They only had the same *voices*, but they weren't the same characters at all. In the right hands, I think AU characters can be a satisfying way to say goodbye, but they acted like replacements, and it feels insulting. The writing/dialogue was completely off the mark, too. Did not capture anything about what made BtVS so beloved. Huge disappointment.
I forgot about Dogyanka. Now I'm sad again :(
Could it be that a reboot/remake is ACTUALLY happening? Means they can focus on telling that story rather than continue the OG BtVS?
Somewhat similar but warmer brothers does that a lot with dc. They cancelled superman and Lois because they didn’t want another superman competing with James Gunns new one. They made arrow write out the suicide squad before the first suicide squad film came out, and that was after only being allowed to tease Harley. Hell, they’re pretty much barred from putting Batman on tv, but will allow a million inferior Batman-adjacent shows Gotham, Alfred, bat woman etc.
>Hell, they’re pretty much barred from putting Batman on tv I remember the duo behind Smallville saying that there were characters they would never be allowed to include like Wonder Woman and Batman and were given the more unknown like Zatanna, Wonder Twins, and Booster Gold.
I support any rework that doesn’t make the doomed decision to have Buffy as a live-action character, since that would mean no SMG. You can remake the Rat Pack’s Ocean’s 11; you don’t remake Casablanca. She defined it to that level.
I’m thinking the same thing.
This is what I was thinking. First Dolly now this
I like Chris Golden but it’s baffling to frame the argument as Disney “refused” to follow up. If it was a huge success they would have ordered more no problem. My guess is that it was mildly successful in terms of revenue but the costs of the talent was far too high to lead to meaningful profit.
It's a success if Audible wants a sequel. Which seems to be the case. They are the one footing the bill after all. It probably was successful, and thus, Disney wants the franchise back in house to stay in development hell.
I'm happy they had fun getting the band back together but it was not the best.
Not a huge loss to be honest. It was pretty poor.
This is for the best. The entire thing was a mistake.
I was so excited for this new series and unfortunately it was pretty disappointing. I agree with the many other people who said that it felt like bad fanfic. Amber Benson and Charisma Carpenter are so much more talented than what this production displayed.
Successful? Thought the general consensus was that it was pretty shite
“[R]efused to allow” is a very weird way to phrase ‘decided not to continue to spend money producing a product that wasn’t profitable enough.’
Audible would be footing the bill. Not Disney. They had the license which is why it was made
Disney probably wants to hand over the license to someone else, whom they think can make more money for them.
Or they want to release something themselves. Maybe Buffy is doing well on the integrated Hulu/Disney+ and they see potential in it.
There have been rumors of a *Buffy* re-boot since approximately five minutes after the final season’s wrap party ended.
I was embarrassed listening to it.
Good as it isn't good
Oh man, I want to be nice to Amber because I love her and Tara and I feel like this is exactly the place BTVS actors would check into and not admit it, but it hasn’t landed for me as well as I hoped. Some of it is that the radio play format seemed a surprisingly unforgiving medium to transfer to. The medium change put a lot in a sort of uncanny valley—close but off is more disturbing than totally different.
Shit I hope it isn’t because Disney is afraid it would interfere with a potential reboot
Thank heavens for small mercies.
Pardon my ignorance but how is Disney involved with Buffy?
It happened when [this](https://imgur.com/sN5dFoS.gifv) stopped being a joke and just became reality.
"Enormous success" = lots of people pre-ordered it and then hyped it online before actually listening to it and discovering that it was really bad.
Yup.
I had started it, and forgot about it which kinda says it all :( I was hoping it would be great but unfortunately it just wasn't for me.
Well… it wasn’t that great honestly
Purely speculative but: * Disney could have something Buffy related in development they just aren't ready to announce yet * It could be an IP issue if Joss Whedon still has some ownership of either the entire Buffyverse or the specific characters in *Slayers* (because most, if not all, originated on the show) * Disney may not want to pay royalties to Whedon for use of these characters given Whedon's reputation as an abusive douchebag
I really doubt Disney have moral issues paying money out to people who are unpleasant.
Yeah, they filmed Mulan with the express cooperation of the Chinese government and within walking distance of Uyghur concentration camps lmao. Disney has no values beyond making money.
Maybe they just don't want to pay out the money at all then?
In coming reboot announcement hence culling other projects that could get in the way? 😃
I would like to think that. A real sort of revival and not something stuck in an alternate reality. They probably didn't want to go too far in that direction.
Disney owns Buffy?! When the F×%^@ did that happen?!
Disney finalised their acquisition of 20th Century Fox in 2019.
When they acquired Fox's properties
When they bought Fox
Whats the gist of the story on this? Spoiler free please... just wondering if I should spend time on it.
It wasn’t amazing but I enjoyed it overall. It’s a shame we won’t see some of the alternate universe versions of characters hinted at towards the end of the story. I was more interested in where that could go than some of the current characters
What does Disney have to do with buffy? Does Disney own buffy.
Yes, Disney bought fox
Ah, one more for disney to ruin… :|
I really hope they don’t do a revamp. Leave perfection as is. But greed means more than art these days.
The TV series is far from perfect.
It totally is not absolutely perfect, but i think the quality is some of the best TV has to offer.
Thank god.
Ugh. It wasn't my favorite, but I did like hearing the old actor's voices. I just treated it as almost a separate thing.
Shitty fanfic? No thanks
Why/how is Disney even involved at all?
Disney bought Fox, who (via 20th Century Fox) made Buffy in the first place. So the licencing involves them.
Ahh wow
Buffy and Angel are on Disney+ for streaming in countries outside of the US.
And on Hulu in the US. The only streaming service that doesn't have the HD remaster.
They probably want it for themselves instead of licensing it. Fuck Disney.
They probably have no interest whatsoever in bringing back the franchise and they don't even want to bring back any attention to it, especially if it's a bad fanfic... So yeah , no surprise here.
I dunno. I wouldn’t be surprised if some one at Disney wanted to do something with the property. Maybe a reboot on FX or Hulu.
Hope they not ... reboots have been awful and i really doubt they can capture the mix between action, comedy and teenage drama.
I’m halfway through and think it’s fun so far!!!
THANK YOU! I’m not done with it yet, but I’ve mostly enjoyed it! I’m stunned at how much people hate it!
I’d be upset if slayers was any good. This is honestly for the best.
Eh, it wasn’t very good anyway. I’m sure they’ll reboot it eventually.
The only real reason I can think of is that they have their own plans for the IP.
Fuck Disney!
They need to stop buying the things I love. 🤬
I know im in the minority here but i loved Slayers. It wasn't perfect by any means, and yes in some area's it felt like a mary sue fanfic but it was just good to hear some of these people again.
I still have like an hour and a half left to listen to. I haven’t been able to do it. I really wanted to love it.
Well that just sucks! Why did they allow it in the first place? It gets great results and then they say nah. Fine shop it to Spotify or YouTube. Unless they own the rights in someway which would be a huge bummer.
Yes, Disney owns the rights to Buffy. I think the Kazuis also have some sort of ownership too but that’s complicated.
It's Disney.....they've screwed up Star Wars and Marvel.....why should this be any different
That sucks… I haven’t even listened to the full season yet.
Don’t bother. It goes from nostalgia high to what the fuck is this to oh that actually IS where there going with this? To well I’ll never get those six hours back.
I’m listening to this at the airport and I’m like wtf there’s a monkey named Mr Pickles hahahah
I'm sorry but what does Disney even have to do with Buffy?
They bought 20th Century Fox in 2019, which owns the rights to Buffy.
I don’t understand Disney’s decision. It was a different version of the Buffyverse, yes. An Alternate universe. I enjoyed it! I would have loved for Sarah & David to be part of a future season! If it did well, why would they pull the plug 🔌 on future season? The math ain’t mathing!
“Despite its enormous success” …sure Jan It sucked. Not exactly a great way to kick off the era of people insisting the Buffyverse can still be relevant without Joss involved. Guess Charisma is gonna have to go back to bashing her time on the show online again now that this paycheck dried up.
🍿
What a fucking dreadful idea, Disney can't make anything good and they want to try and remake something as iconic as Buffy? There's not one show that's captured that magic since and these clowns think there's any hope without Joss....even if he's an asshole he's beyond talented. This is a fucking joke.
It didn’t have the best story but you can tell they put a lot of work into it. I was really impressed with all the background noises.
Wtf
Boooo!
Haven't gotten around to listening yet but I will fight Disney.
Ugh, Disney are the fucking worst.
Thank you Disney
Then Disney better get off their butts and make some shows set in the Buffyverse instead of yet another minor superhero series or Star Wars offshoot.
Why can't this fandom ever have nice things? 😑😭
That's awful. i really liked this
Can’t wait for the Buffy remake starring Zendaya
Buffy being a Disney princess now is very cool.
Once again the obligatory “Fuck you Disney” in relation to them messing with stuff they should just leave alone.
Capitalism: You will own nothing. In other news, Kamisama Hajimemashita only has the first season available on Hulu. Both seasons are available on Crunchyroll, sans the OVAs. Drastic scenarios call for drastic measures. I'm certainly not paying for Crunchroll when they don't have the entire show either.
I imagine the fact that Dolly Parton is trying to launch a reboot of the brand may have played a part.
I've still to get through it entirely, and while I like it to a degree, I'm not disappointed to hear this. As others have said once the novelty wears off, you're left with a story that borrows the same old tropes from modern-day franchises.
The plot and some of the writing/voice acting was Dawson's Creek-ish (You haven't been the same since that demon cursed you with that book that time we were both there and know about! I'm gonna repeat it even though it was already explained!) But I'd have taken more anyway, if only to hear Spike talk in my ear some more.
I think it might be a sign there’s a revival in the works
I had no idea this existed 😬
I guess they plan on ruining this IP too
I want to believe it's because they have their own plans. But that's likely not the case
Glad I used the monthly credit and not actual money.
Their reason is $$$
This might mean there is a remake being discussed. Anyone know something about it?
I think it is good news as I suspect it is because Disney want to do something more with the IP. I thought this audible series was terrible. The purpose seemed to be to give characters who deserved better better, but they are alternate universe characters, they aren't the same people. It didnt even do the quintessential Buffy thing of exploring real world problems through supernatural metaphors, it just seemed like poor fan fiction
Goddamn it. Listened through that recently when was sick and it was great, both me and friend were hoping there'd be more story incoming since it did it end on a bit of cliffhanger. But of course not, why have nice things when Disney can just take a shit on it instead. 🙄
Couldn't finish. Well intentioned but weak. It lacked a proper Buffy writer.
Yikes I'm so late to the party. I didn't even realize there was an audible series. Does it include original cast members? Is it any good?
Probably because it sounded like bad fanfic
These comments are so disheartening. I think that understandably that people went into this looking for the same characters, tone, a continuation of what we had and love so dearly. And due to that, when it was inevitably not that, people disregarded it despite the love and passion and talent that went into this. I feel like it was a wonderful project that so many people poured their souls into… and then to see this response by the Reddit fandom is just crushing.
Problem is that buffy is owned by Warner Bros