How The Buffy Sequel Series Will Finally Bring Justice To Charisma Carpenter
Twenty years after audiences watched Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) slay her last demon, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" is set to return with a multiverse-style sequel. The new story won't be a TV show, but an audio series called "Slayers: A Buffyverse Story" — a format switch that, while perhaps less common than a straightforward revival series, has been done successfully before by at least one other big fandom genre show, "Orphan Black."
There are a lot of reasons worth getting excited about "Slayers." Eight original series cast members are returning for the new project, including Emma Caulfield Ford (Anya), Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia), Anthony Head (Giles), James Marsters (Spike), and more. Amber Benson is also returning despite her character Tara's controversial death in season 6 of the original show — apparently the new series will play with alternate realities, allowing her character's reappearance. Plus, "Slayers" seems to be listening to decades of fan feedback about the original series' lack of meaningful racial diversity, as it'll feature a new young slayer named Indira (Laya DeLeon Hayes, "The Equalizer" show), who is a woman of color.
The strange, slow demise of Cordelia Chase
Perhaps most promising of all for fans who have kept up with the allegations that have piled up against original series creator Joss Whedon in recent years, Whedon's name is nowhere to be found on the project. Instead, Benson co-wrote the new show with Christopher Golden, who's penned over a dozen Buffy-related books over the years. While it's too soon to tell how the new series will stack up to the original, there's one important thing that it's likely to deliver: justice for Charisma Carpenter's Cordelia. The actress said so herself in a Twitter thread following the show's announcement:
1/10
I am so damn proud of friends @rebma_nosneb & @Christophgolden for providing a story within a beloved universe that is truly of service to my character, Cordelia Chase. If there was ever to be #justiceforcordelia this audio drama series told in 9 eps on @audible provides it pic.twitter.com/dCqnkJcpnx
— charisma carpenter (@AllCharisma) September 16, 2023
For fans of Carpenter and her preppy mean-girl-turned-heroine Cordelia Chase, a story that centers and respects her character is a huge deal. Charisma was famously written off the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" spinoff series "Angel" in season 4, and while the details of the behind-the-scenes drama that led to her exit from the show (she also returned for one episode of season 5) wouldn't come to light until years later, anyone watching "Angel" could see that Cordelia was being treated differently than other characters. The fan-favorite member of Angel Investigations was sidelined and diminished in increasingly odd ways throughout the show's run, getting trapped in a higher plane, losing her memory, becoming pregnant (by Angel's recently-a-baby son!) while possessed, and ultimately falling into a coma she never woke up from.
Carpenter's experiences on the set of Buffy and Angel
Cordelia's final arc was disappointing, but not nearly as disappointing as the later revelation that, according to Carpenter, she had been mistreated by Whedon — especially after becoming pregnant during the show's run. Carpenter publicly alluded to behind-the-scenes issues with Whedon as far back as 2009, but in 2021, she posted a detailed statement to Twitter accusing Whedon of creating a hostile work environment, threatening to fire her, calling her fat during her pregnancy, calling a retaliatory 1am shoot during which she experienced false labor, pitting cast and crew members against one another, and "berating" her over a religious tattoo.
"Joss intentionally refused multiple calls from my agents making it impossible to connect with him to tell him the news that I was pregnant," Carpenter wrote. She says that once he did find out, he called a closed-door meeting where he "asked me if I was 'going to keep it' and manipulatively weaponized my womanhood and faith against me. He proceeded to attack my character, mock my religious beliefs, accuse me of sabotaging the show, and then unceremoniously fired me the following season once I gave birth."
As horrifying as these claims are, they're far from the only workplace misconduct allegations Whedon has faced. Carpenter initially spoke up in solidarity with Ray Fisher, who spoke out about his alleged mistreatment by Whedon on the set of "Justice League." Other "Buffy" co-stars and crew members also shared negative experiences with Whedon, with Michelle Trachtenberg saying via Instagram that a rule was put in place so the then-teenaged actor wouldn't be alone in the same room with him.
Buffy multiverse, here we come!
It is, of course, tough for many fans to mentally square all of this toxicity with the impassioned love they've had for the series for years. In the years since these accusations, the question hasn't been "What will a new version of 'Buffy' look like?" but rather "Should there even be a new version of Buffy?"
If there should be, it sounds like "Slayers" might just be the best way back into the franchise. Not only will Carpenter return as Cordelia, but she'll also be playing a slayer herself, appearing from another timeline in which it's her, not Buffy, who was chosen to face the forces of darkness. The plot might sound outlandish, but a recent comic book run by Boom! Studios similarly played around with an alternate reality in which heroes, villains, monsters, and slayers were all swapped around. The original series run did so too, in episodes like "The Wish" and "Doppelgangland," which feature Xander (Nicholas Brendon) and Willow (Alyson Hannigan) as vampires.
Carpenter says she signed on to "Slayers" because she "believed it would be redemptive of so many things for both [her] and the fandom." "Slayers" may not be getting the entire Scooby gang back together, but if it can truly provide justice for Cordelia — and hopefully a better work environment for Carpenter — it'll be a win for true "Buffy" fans everywhere.
"Slayers: A Buffyverse Story" premieres October 12, 2023 on Audible.