Fox TV CEO Provides ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’ Reboot Update

Word broke at San Diego Comic-Con last month that Joss Whedon was working on rebooting Buffy the Vampire Slayer with new showrunner Monica Owusu-Breen, sending the fandom into a frenzy. But people should temper their expectations, because the new series is a long way from becoming a reality.

Fox Television Group Chairman and CEO Gary Newman spoke at the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour today when he said the show is far from the pilot phase.

“It’s not on an incredibly fast track, but we’re hopeful,” Newman said.

Whedon will serve as an executive producer and oversee the reboot, but Owusu-Breen will be firmly in the driver’s seat. She’s also making a major change to the title character, with word that she’s seeking to cast a black actress as Buffy.

“There’s actually no script to see. We’ve sat down with creators and had conversations with them about it. It’s a very exciting prospect,” Newman said. “It’s fairly early. We haven’t pitched it to any possible licensees yet, all of that is still to come. We’re thrilled that Joss has engaged Monica who he worked with on one of his other series. She’s the person who is day to day on it. She has a great take on the show.”

There are a lot of questions surrounding this new take on Whedon’s creation, which launched his career to the point where he’s now directed two massively successful Avengers movies for Marvel Studios. But Owusu-Breen issued a statement that indicated she’s more than up for the challenge.

“For some genre writers it’s Star Wars,” Owusu-Breen wrote. “Buffy the Vampire Slayer is my Star Wars. Before I became a writer, I was a fan. For seven seasons, I watched Buffy Summers grow up, find love, kill that love. I watched her fight, and struggle and slay.

“There is only one Buffy. One Xander, one Willow, Giles, Cordelia, Oz, Tara, Kendra, Faith, Spike, Angel… They can’t be replaced. Joss Whedon‘s brilliant and beautiful series can’t be replicated. I wouldn’t try to. But here we are, twenty years later… And the world seems a lot scarier. So maybe, it could be time to meet a new Slayer…. And that’s all I can say.”

Hopefully we’ll learn more about the new take on Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the near future.

Additional reporting by Scott Huver.