Buffy is coming back - and she will be black

Hollywood appears to be continuing its trend of reviving iconic '90s TV shows in the absence of any original or fresh ideas.

Cult series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which is still remembered as one of the most poignant and well-crafted shows of its time, will return to our screens once more. Unlike the vampires in which the heroine slays, Buffy will not rest in peace.

The original show, which starred Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy, a blonde-haired Californian girl, will be given a ‘contemporary’ update as an undisclosed black actor steps into the role of ‘The Chosen One’, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

And if fans - like myself - are worried that their precious, close-to-perfection series will be ruined by this reboot that no one asked for, they can take some solace in the fact that Buffy’s original creator, Joss Whedon, will executive produce the renewal. Agents Of SHIELD writer Monica Owusu-Breen will write it.

Disclaimer: I am a Buffy disciple. So much so, in fact, that I own six Buffy-themed T-shirts, all of the seasons on DVD, and I wrote my postgraduate dissertation on the show’s approach to gender constructs and race. I still have a picture of Buffy and her one true love, Angel, on my wall.

Therefore, I think I speak for every Buffy fan in saying that I am worried. Apprehensive. Pained to think of anyone butchering Buffy’s legacy. I do consider myself ‘woke’ enough now, though, to appreciate the original’s shortcomings: it is incredibly white, middle-class and bourjeois.

A black female lead role in the next installment is worthy of praise and is an overdue move. But, what I find so infuriating by an onslaught of reboots such as this, is that instead of casting a black actor as the main character in a typically white show, why not come up with a whole new character and series that encapsulates modern living?

Buffy is too ingrained in our pop culture consciousness as a pretty white girl from Sunnydale, whose attraction to even paler vampiric men came to define her, that the the new show will be reduced to a game of comparisons. ‘Which Buffy is better and badder?’ will be the one question on everyone’s lips.

Whoever the new Buffy is will be doomed from the start. Unfair though it is, there is no getting away from it. While I applaud the move to create a more diverse cast that is more representative of life and entertainment in 2018, I fear its accomplishments will be drowned out by the deafening cries of its fans begging to let some old shows just die in glory.