One of the knock-on effects of a new generation of TV and film creators recreating, rebooting, or simply reviving the work of earlier writers and directors is that the new breed often turn out to have been outright fans of what the old guard was up to. That’s certainly the case with Chloé Zhao’s efforts to revive Buffy The Vampire Slayer, with the Hamnet co-writer and director taking some time out of her press tour (for the very somber Shakespearean child-death drama) to wrestle with equally weighty issues of a more modern vintage: Angel, or Spike?
This is per an interview Zhao recently did with Lauren Veneziani, a.k.a. DC Film Girl, who immediately turned the conversation away from Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal, and toward Buffy ‘shipping talk. Zhao was just as game, though, especially on the topic of which of Buffy Summers’ various boyfriends she rooted for in the series—provoking a possible schism when she revealed that she was in the camp of James Marsters’ Spike, not Veneziani’s preferred bloodsucker, David Boreanaz’s Angel. (Détente was reached when both women acknowledged that Marc Blucas’ Riley has grown on them over the years, for the basic reason of not being an emotionally repressed 300-year-old adolescent.)
Mostly, though, it’s just interesting to see Zhao fully fan out about the original series, speaking in a way that makes it clear that she’s still super-invested in its stories of supernatural horror blending into young adult angst. That includes a very sweet story she told about the wrap for the revived show’s pilot episode: After being told by Sarah Michelle Gellar—the only cast member from the original who’s been confirmed to appear in the revival—that she hadn’t kept the “Class Protector” trophy from the show’s famous prom episode, Zhao got her prop department to whip up a new version of the glittery little umbrella, and presented it to Gellar on the final day of shooting. (Complete with delivering her version of Danny Strong’s speech from one of the show’s most heartwarming moments. Very sweet!)
Zhao’s Buffy revival—which she’s described as a “continuation” of the original series—is set to land on Hulu. No release date has been offered.
