David Boreanaz is being very chill about the Buffy reboot
When Joss Whedon announced an impending reboot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer—one set in the present day and with an all-new Slayer played by a black actress— longtime fans of the cult classic absolutely lost their shit. While plenty welcomed the news as a promise of more Buffy, others feared that the new show would “ruin” the one they so loved.
While most of the debate has taken place over social media, things heated up at yesterday’s New York Comic Con, when panelist and Buffy alum David Boreanaz was asked to give his take on the reboot. The question was immediately met with angry boos from the crowd. But after living entire lifetimes on both Buffy and his spinoff series Angel, David Boreanaz is getting too old for this shit.
“Come on, guys, it’s a good thing,” he said in the show’s defense. “Let’s just embrace [it]. I’m very happy for them. They want to embrace a new generation, something new. … Everybody wants old, they want to go back, which I can understand. You want to see us back in these roles. It’s great, it’s cool, [but] things move on, stories evolve, times change.”
Those changing times are exactly what sparked the need for a reboot, according to Agents S.H.I.E.L.D. producer Monica Owusu-Breen, who will be scripting the new series. While she acknowledged that the original characters can not and should not be replaced, she feels that now, 15 years after Buffy last put down her stakes, “the world seems a lot scarier. So maybe, it could be time to meet a new Slayer.”
“I think it’s a great opportunity for a reboot like this to show where we are with society now, what you can do with technology,” Boreanaz said. “How you can explore those relationships with the same kinds of metaphors. I’m all for it. I think it’s fantastic. Good for them. I hope that it becomes huge and successful, and does what it does.”
It’s not particularly shocking that Boreanaz would give the show his stamp of approval. After all, he’s no stranger to spinoffs himself, having starred in Angel, a spinoff of the original Buffy series, which was itself a reboot of the less successful film.
“If someone can step in my shoes and play my character, fuck, go ahead!” Boreanaz said. “I think that’s great, because I ain’t putting on that makeup anymore!”