'Buffy' Revelation: Joss Whedon Hated Spike

James Marsters, the actor who played the mostly-evil vampire Spike on Buffy The Vampire Slayer, has revealed in a recent interview that Spike was supposed to die early on. Marsters says that BTVS creator Joss Whedon intended Spike as a purely evil character who would perish at the hands of good. Fans of the show saw the character as more nuanced, however, and Whedon reluctantly allowed Spike to live (or, rather, the vampire equivalent of living). Some fans would argue that the series would have suffered mightily if Whedon had gotten his way.

Via Page Six.

James Marsters is reflecting on his iconic, bleached-blond super villain character Spike 20 years after “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” premiered.

“To Joss Whedon, evil is not cool and I really respect that — Spike was put up as cool and evil only because he was a disposable character,” Marsters, 55, told Page Six. “He was supposed to die.”

The “Runaways” actor told us that Whedon had intended for Spike to get killed off by Angel, the show’s moral vampire, early on. Whedon, who created the show, was not happy when fans began to like Spike.

“It was not supposed to be romantic, but the audience was responding that way and Joss was freaking out,” he told us. “He backed me up against a wall one day and said, ‘I don’t care how popular you are, you are dead.'”

He continued, “Spike was the wrong boyfriend. Spike was not ready for Buffy during the run of the show. He was way below her and because the reaction was so strong … they had to do something dramatic to prove that wasn’t true.”

The move, which became one of the show’s biggest controversies, came in the sixth season of the series when Spike attempts to rape Buffy in the bathroom of her home before she fights him off.

“It was the hardest day of my professional career. It was a horrible day,” Marsters told us. “I personally don’t like to watch that stuff. I will not go to a movie if I know that’s in there. I will turn the TV off if it pops up. I will pass on auditions if thats what they want me to do, but I was contracted to do it.”

Marsters says the storyline came from one of the female writers who threw herself on an ex-boyfriend in college in hopes of him taking her back.

Get the rest of the story at Page Six.

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