Why Emma Caulfield Asked Joss Whedon To Kill Off Her Character On Buffy
It's safe to say the early aughts WB series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" was a smash hit — among other accolades, it produced a five-season spin-off, "Angel," and launched several storied careers, including that of its controversial creator, Joss Whedon. A few of the "Buffy" characters returned in "Angel" after departing from "Buffy," including the British Watcher Wesley and Sunnydale High's resident mean girl Cordelia. Even Spike, who was killed off in the "Buffy" series finale, returned for the final season of the spin-off. However, not all of the cast members were so keen on reprising their roles after the original series ended.
Emma Caulfield stars in "Buffy" as the minor character Anya, a wish-granting vengeance demon who is turned back into a human and forced to attend high school where she falls in love with Buffy's hapless human sidekick, Xander. She became a recurring character in season 3 before falling into the role of a series regular for the latter half of the show. She grows on the viewer as she learns to navigate the human world of social cues and develops a conscience, but perhaps the thing that fans remember best about Anya is her untimely death.
In the series finale, Anya is brutally and unceremoniously killed off in the heat of battle. Her murder is midway through the episode, incidental, an unfortunate casualty of the war between good and evil. It does not get special attention like Spike's world-saving self-sacrifice — and it sent fans into an outrage. She had just resolved her years-long on-off love affair with Xander, and now she was gone.
So why did Whedon kill off one of his main characters with so little fanfare? Well, as it turns out, it was Caulfield herself who requested that her character die in the series finale — and her reason might surprise you.
She felt underappreciated and disrespected
Whedon had always planned for one of the "Buffy" characters to die unexpectedly in the heat of battle. Unexpected deaths were a bit of a trademark on the show, from Buffy's mother's aneurism in season 5 to Tara's shooting in season 6, and the final episode presented the last opportunity to knock the wind out of the audience.
"I wanted to kill somebody, and I wanted to do it brutally and suddenly and never really pay it off," the series creator told TV Guide Online back in 2003, just after the series finale aired. "I wanted a death that was a real middle-of-the-battle death — the opposite of the Spike death, [which was] perfect, noble."
So why was Anya chosen as the victim of this sudden death? Well, Caulfield had reportedly "made it clear that she really was not interested in coming back," Whedon said.
"I think things with Fox weren't great and she felt ill-used — not by the show," he continued. "She had a good time making the show, I think. But she was ready to move on. But it was tough [killing her off]. The last shot before we wrapped her was that shot where she gets sliced. And it's very weird to play your death and go, 'Okay, I'm done.'"
The actress later confirmed that she left the show because of conflicts with higher-ups.
"I had a fantastic experience on 'Buffy' and I thought it was a great show, but in some ways I didn't feel that character was reflective of everything I could do," she explained in a 2006 interview. "And by the end, I felt very unappreciated by certain people. Almost everybody was great, but certain people [...] By the end it was just no fun to come to work and be continually disrespected."
Did Caulfield quit the show because of Whedon?
Now, when actresses on the set of "Buffy" say that they felt disrespected by "certain people," it's a pretty safe bet that they are referring to Whedon. The "Avengers" director has fielded several serious allegations of workplace misconduct from Caulfield's co-stars, including Charisma Carpenter, who played Cordelia on both "Buffy" and "Angel." Whedon was "mean" and "disparaging about others openly," the actress wrote in a social media statement in 2021.
Carpenter's experience was corroborated by Michelle Trachtenberg, who played Buffy's teenage sister Dawn when she was only a teenager herself. Whedon's behavior, she wrote, was "not appropriate," and there was even a rule against them being in the same room alone together.
However, based on Caulfield's statements at the time, it doesn't seem like Whedon was the one that the actress took issue with on the "Buffy" set. Although she did not reprise her role on "Angel," which ran for another year after "Buffy" ended, in 2006 she stated that "if they ever do a "Buffy" movie and [Whedon] wants to bring me back as a ghost or something, I'd be glad to do that."
Unsurprisingly, Whedon had attributed Caulfield's issues to Fox executives in a 2003 interview, adding that the actress "had a good time making the show" but "was ready to move on" when it ended. Although the "Timer" star never named names, her story does line up with the series creator's. However, there is one thing that suggests Whedon was the problem. Caulfield never reprised her role as Anya until 2023, when a new project emerged — this time without his involvement.
Anya returns in the Audible spin-off 'Slayers'
The story of "Buffy" and her friends that Whedon established in the hit WB series continued through comic books for years to follow, but "Buffy" fans have been clamoring for the actors to reprise their roles for decades after the abrupt cancellation of "Angel." Twenty years after the "Buffy" series finale, they finally got their wish: the show's veteran actress Amber Benson created an audiobook series titled "Slayers: A Buffyverse Story," which takes place in an alternate universe where Buffy never existed.
Several members of the show's original cast, including Caulfield, Carpenter, and Benson herself, will reprise their original roles in voice-only format. With so many old stars returning for the first time, it can't be a coincidence that this project — the first in Whedon's catalog after his wave of public allegations — won't be under the "Firefly" creator's leadership. Benson even spoke out in support of Carpenter when she came forward with her claims against their old boss. "Buffy was a toxic environment and it starts at the top," she tweeted.
Even though Anya was killed off in the final episode of "Buffy" and Cordelia was killed off (with an even more shocking lack of ceremony) in the final season of "Angel," the alternate universe of "Slayers" allows their characters to start fresh. Whether or not Caulfield asked to be killed off because of Whedon or because of other powerful people behind the scenes, it's amazing to see her reprise her beloved character again. And the way Benson tells it, we will definitely see more of Anya in the next season of the Audible series.
"I would love to do more seasons," the audiobook creator told Variety. "Emma Caulfield was like, 'When do we do the next one?'"