Original 'Buffy' Cast Creates a New Vampire Slayer Story
by EG
Many of the original cast members from Buffy the Vampire Slayer have returned to star in a new audio pdocast series that tells an original Buffyverse story. Co-written by Amber Benson (Tara), 'Slayers' visits an alternate universe in which Buffy Summers never existed. The series marks an effort by Benson and other cast members to reclaim the Vampire Slayer stories from their negative association with creator Joss Whedon, who has been the subject of numerous accusations. Read on for details.
Via Variety.
The cast of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” is ready to reclaim the narrative. Through the new Audible original, “Slayers: A Buffyverse Story,” several actors from the acclaimed drama series are back together to play their beloved characters once again — this time in an audio original podcast.
“Slayers” is co-written by Amber Benson, who portrayed Tara in “Buffy,” and Christopher Golden, who has penned multiple books in the “Buffyverse.” Before the COVID pandemic, Benson began calling her former costars to see who might want to be involved, focusing on the characters she felt weren’t serviced enough in the original show. She also wanted to find a way to highlight what it means to be a slayer who is also a woman of color.
That’s where Laya DeLeon Hayes came in, portraying 16-year-old Slayer Indira Nunnally in the new series, which takes place in 2013, 10 years after “Buffy” ended. James Marsters returns as Spike, the narrator of “Slayers” who is searching for a watcher for Indira. On that journey, they collide with a slayer from “a parallel reality where Buffy Summers never existed.” In this universe, Cordelia Chase (Charisma Carpenter) is the one-and-only Slayer — and the big bad is Spike’s former pet, Drusilla (Juliet Landau). “Buffy” stars Anthony Head (as Giles), Emma Caulfield Ford (as Anya and Anyaka), James Charles Leary (as Clem) and Danny Strong (as ghost Jonathan) also star.
“I want to live in the meta world where Charisma Carpenter is Cordelia, the Vampire Slayer. That was the pull for me,” says Benson of why she created “Slayers.”
Joss Whedon is the original creator of all of these characters. In 2021, Carpenter, among numerous others, alleged that Whedon abused his power on the set of “Buffy” and its spinoff, “Angel.” She claimed that she was fired from the show, resulting in Cordelia being killed off.
Get the rest of the story at Variety.