Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Every Confirmed Slayer In History

Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans know the saying well, as every episode delivers it in some form, recounting the history of the Slayer herself. Called a “Chosen One,” a girl who has to stand alone to fight all of the vampires, demons, and forces of darkness, the prophecy tells a succinct story. It’s a creed meant to explain the larger place of the Slayer as an entity in the world, but one that the series itself spends almost all of its time trying to subvert as Buffy herself continues to find help and solace in her friends, allies, and, eventually, fellow Slayers.

A major detail that comes with the prophecy, however, is one that the series only touches on a few times over the years: the history of the title of the Slayer. Fans know that some of them are explicitly shown across multiple episodes in the show, and though there are thousands of years’ worth of Slayers that precede Buffy Summers, there are only a few actually confirmed Slayers. Many of the Slayers before Buffy don’t even have a name, their story isn’t all that fleshed out, and series creator Joss Whedon didn’t create them; their existence is a footnote in a comic or prose novel. That said, everyone here at least has two of those three qualifiers, each filling out the history of the Slayer in unique ways.

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7) Sineya

Sineya made her debut in Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 4, appearing in a series of dreams and visions with Buffy and her friends, where her identity as the very first in the line is revealed. She made two more appearances in the series, in Season 5, where an entity called “The Guide” takes on her form, and then again in Season 7 when her origins are revealed. As you can expect, it was not a kind origin: in the desert of prehistoric Africa, a trio of mages infused Sineya, often just called “The First Slayer,” with the spirit of a demon so that she could fight them.

Sineya was played by actress Sharon Ferguson across her appearances in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series, but the character would return in the pages of comics and novels as well.

6) The Italian Barmaid (1400s)

Though the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer feature film has a nebulous connectivity to the TV series, elements of it have been revisited down the line to indicate that they are still in canon. One detail that the film does is tease previous Slayers from history, all of whom have Buffy star Kristy Swanson playing the role, one of them is an Italian barmaid from the 1400s. Though the film only shows her briefly, as she’s quickly killed by Lothos, the character returns in various Buffy comics, including the Joss Whedon-penned sequel series Fray, making her clearly canon.

5) The Dark Ages Slayer (and More)

After the death of the barmaid, another Slayer was naturally called upon, this time a noblewoman in England who took on the mantle. The Buffy comics would later add some more nuance to her, revealing she initially refused the call before reluctantly agreeing. Though unseen in the movie, three more past Slayers are hinted at when Buffy’s watcher, Merrick, makes a note of her having recurring dreams where she’s someone else, including “A Magyar peasant girl,” an “Indian Princess,” and a slave in Virginia. Though none of these are seen elsewhere in the continuity, their place alongside the other past Slayers in Buffy’s dreams from the film makes it clear that they’re canon.

4) The Tales of the Slayers Roster

While Buffy the Vampire Slayer was entering its final season, an official anthology comic, titled Tales of the Slayers, was released and which detailed a number of other notable Slayers from throughout history. Among them was Sineya, the first Slayer, plus Melaka Fray, the Slayer of the 23rd Century, already with her own comic series, but also another Slayer that we’ll talk about later.

Four other Slayers from history are revealed in these comics, including:

• Claudine, a French Slayer active during the French Revolution in 1789
• Elizabeth Weston, an English Slayer who would disguise herself as a man and was active around 1813
• Naayéé’neizgháni, a Navajo Slayer who attacked a nest of vampires on a barren piece of land (that would one day become Sunnydale, California)
• Anni, aka “Sonnenblume,” a young German girl who earns her powers in 1938 and decides to use her abilities to fight evil of Nazis as well as vampires.

3) Xin Rong (1900)

Spike the vampire, a fan-favorite from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, has a key piece of lore that defines his history. During his time as a bloodsucker, he’s actually killed two Slayers by himself. The first of these is Xin Rong, a Chinese Slayer whom he kills during the Boxer Rebellion back in 1900. Played by Ming Qiu, Xin Rong is mentioned a few times over the course of both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, including her history with Spike, being remembered by a new Slayer, Dana.

2) Nikki Wood

The second Slayer that Spike killed is Nikki Wood, who served as the Slayer from 1970 to 1977, and the third Slayer that got her own story in the aforementioned Tales of the Slayers. Nikki operated mostly in New York, though she made trips to South America and Mexico as well. After killing Nikki, Spike would steal her leather jacket, making it a primary piece of his look for years to come.

Buffy fans also know that Nikki’s story didn’t end there, though, as it was revealed that her son was none other than Robin Wood, a major ally of the Scooby gang and a vampire hunter in his own right. Across her two appearances, Nikki was played by both April Weeden and K.D. Aubert.

1) The Slayer Right Before Buffy

With Nikki dying in 1977 and Buffy not being called to become the Slayer until 1996, that leaves nearly twenty years of Slayers operating out in the world that are largely unaccounted for, though their stories are hinted at in various novels. One major question mark that Buffy lore has addressed a few times but never really nailed down firmly is which Slayer preceded Buffy. There are two potential answers to this.

The first is India Cohen, a Slayer from North Carolina who hopped all over the world due to her father being in the military. Introduced in the pages of the novel The Book of Fours, her canon status is dubious since Whedon did not create her, and she’s never been acknowledged elsewhere. The second potential Slayer, right before Buffy, does not have a name and makes her first appearance in the canon comic book series Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, appearing in issue #34. She dies on the street after trying to stake a vampire, but series artist Georges Jeanty made a note of her being Buffy’s predecessor, but the text itself does not make this clear. In truth, we still don’t know which Slayer held the title right before Buffy, their death calling her to the role.