What a time to be in fandom
Okay, so, Buffy reboot. I've been pretty quiet about it, save for a piece I wrote last year, but since the cancellation news broke, it’s been kinda everywhere so I decided to weigh in.
Yes, I am an elder Millennial. No, I did not want this show. At all. I’m sure a psychologist would have a field day trying to parse the layers of my Buffy obsession—how I can love something so much but be so particular about it—but I do believe the foundation of my obsession was developed honestly and likely reflective of having parents who were openly and unapologetically obsessed with niche interests, activities, or organizations (like antebellum homes or the Chicago Cubs). It's a parasocial relationship I've had most of my life and impacted me in ways that are humbling to consider, both personally and, yes, professionally. I definitely wouldn't be who I am today without it.
And as I said, I'm a picky bitch when it comes to selecting the sacred texts of my specific religion. How picky? Well, let’s just say the reboot was not going to be the first post-Chosen piece of Buffy storytelling I have opted to reject. I had resigned to let the new show live where the comics have lived in my brain—canon-adjacent but not a canon I recognize. That’s the beauty of stories like Buffy. It’s fiction. It’s a world that ultimately lives in one place, and that’s between your ears. Don’t like the comics? No one’s going to force you to accept them as what happened after the series ended. And even better—Buffy itself is a fictional property that not only supports multiple dimensions but has canonically referenced those dimensions. My plan was to shelve the reboot into the World Without Shrimp—let it live separately from the original. I like my own post-series canon better than anything that's come out since 2003.
Should anyone need more evidence that I am the opposite of a casual fan: I literally helped found and currently run a Buffy fanwork archive, to which I've added more than 5M words of Buffyverse stories. My house is a temple to Buffy, from art to collectibles. Most everyone who knows me well will tell you that I have been spectacularly UNNORMAL about Buffy for more than 20 years. And this is important because a lot of the discussion online has been some rendition of "real fans wanted this reboot." Yes, many did. But a lot of them also did not. This might be surprising if you don't frequent those corners of the internet to see where those conversations were being held, but I promise they exist.
Also? No one gets to decide what constitutes a real fan. Stop that gatekeeping bullshit.
I know that’s a lot of rambling background, but I felt context was necessary to underscore the next point: it is fucking ridiculous that this show was cancelled the way it was. That the news broke on the same weekend its loudest champions were celebrating other professional victories, including a film that was up for multiple Academy Awards. SMG, Chloé Zhao, and everyone involved with this project deserved better. No matter how much I didn’t want the new show, I will never not be angry at how its cancellation was handled.
At the same time, I'm also annoyed by the people who claim they've waited for 20+ years to get new Buffy stories when they mean “new Buffy show.” Because friends? Buffy hasn't gone anywhere. There were comics, spinoff comics, novels, and an audio play. There is a ton of licensed, official Buffyverse content out there for anyone who wants it. The story has been continued in various forms, and that’s not even getting into fanfic because I know, for a lot of people, fanfic doesn’t count. And if that’s you, that’s okay. I’m not going to try to convince anyone to try something they don’t want to try.
What I am going to do is push back against the idea that cancelling a TV show deprives anyone of further Buffyverse stories. Because the licensed, official creators who have been putting out official Buffy material—their work matters. They are one of the reasons Buffyverse has survived, and I find it disrespectful of their time and labor investment to insinuate that the only storytelling medium that can continue a narrative is television.
So yes, be sad that the reboot was canceled. Be pissed at the way the cancellation was communicated to the people who were spearheading it, because again, everything about that was supremely shitty. But Buffyverse has been active for 20+ years and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon…as is evidenced by how freaking loud we denizens of Sunnydale still are.
