Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s reboot is expected to bring back several characters from the original series – and that may even include some dead ones. The revival of the hit series will once again feature Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers, but the focus will shift to a new generation of characters. That’ll be led by Ryan Kiera Armstrong’s Slayer, Nova, who’ll have her own Scooby Gang to help as she fights against the forces of darkness, but it’d be a major shock if a few familiar faces don’t turn up (assuming Hulu orders it to series, with only a pilot confirmed so far).
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Some returning characters should, in theory, be very easy to do. Bringing in someone like Rupert Giles (Anthony Head) or Willow Rosenberg (Alyson Hannigan) would make a lot of sense, and given where their characters left off, wouldn’t require much to make it work. However, Gellar also said she’d like to see dead characters return for Buffy‘s reboot. Some may not be possible, outside of flashbacks/visions, but one of the Buffyverse’s very best characters could and should return despite their death: Cordelia Chase.
Cordelia Deserves To Return In Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s Reboot
Cordelia is one of my favorite characters from the Buffyverse, and not just because she displayed some of the sharpest wit (and best outfits) in the original series. As funny as she was, and as great as it was to see her move from a rival into a full-blown Scooby Gang member, the real strength of Cordy was her development in the spinoff, Angel. While she’d long had more depth than it first seemed anyway, this show furthered her growth as her person, giving her a much greater sense of empathy, turning her into a true hero, while not losing the character’s humor and bluntness.
Cordy in the first few seasons of that show is phenomenal, and a real triumph from Charisma Carpenter. Unfortunately, things would go awry with Angel Season 4 – the nadir of the entire universe on-screen – wherein Cordy’s arc was completely butchered. She was given a supernatural pregnancy, had an affair with Angel’s son, Connor, turned into the Beast-Master, and then was put into a coma. These were all wild swings, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but none felt remotely true to her character, nor like they were what was best for the overarching story.
More problematic, however, was the alleged behavior of creator Joss Whedon towards Carpenter (and others) on set. In a statement posted on Instagram in 2021, the actress outlined several instances of Whedon’s treatment of her, including being disparaging, calling her “fat” when she was several months pregnant, asking if she was “going to keep” the baby, and firing her one season after giving birth. This aligns with several other allegations from those involved in the show, and highlights an important part of the new series.
Buffy‘s reboot will not involve Whedon, and it is a chance to further move the show’s legacy away from him. There is so much to celebrate about the series, and that will hopefully be true of the revival as well, and that should include people being able to get the storylines they deserved but were denied at the time. Carpenter’s return for Audible’s Slayers: A Buffyverse Story was already a good step towards that, but a full return, if she wanted it to happen, would be so much better to further reclaim Cordelia’s story and legacy.
How Buffy’s Revival Can Bring Back Cordelia
The aforementioned Slayers included Cordelia from an alternate universe, where she had become the Slayer instead. It made for a fun story there, and it’s something that could potentially be revisited if the reboot were to go down the multiverse route, which is something that’s previously been explored in the comics, too. However, I’d prefer Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s revival to avoid that, simply because multiversal stories have been so prevalent in recent years, and because bringing Cordy back should be even easier than that.
Cordelia’s fate included her becoming an agent for the Powers That Be, and while her existence in a mortal body did seemingly end for good with her death in Angel‘s 100th episode, “You’re Welcome,” that doesn’t mean that she couldn’t make an appearance from the higher plane. There are plenty of scenarios where Buffy and the new Slayer may need to contact the Powers, or be sent help from them, and that could come in the form of Cordy.
We’ve seen these kinds of characters provide information and even intervene before, and it should be quite simple to organically work this into the plot of the reboot. It wouldn’t be for a major role, but it doesn’t need to be: it could be a one-off, a mini-arc, or something recurring now and then, but it would allow Cordy to reunite with Buffy and have more heroic stories, which would absolutely be warranted.
What Charisma Carpenter Has Said About Returning For Buffy’s Reboot
Of course, essential to this is Carpenter, and whether or not she would be open to a return. The actress has been an active part of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer fandom over the years, making several convention appearances that highlight the continued popularity of Cordelia. Carpenter has expressed hope for a return in Buffy‘s reboot, saying, “it would be very poetic to be invited back.” Most recently, however, Carpenter said she hadn’t been asked back: “I am not in the reboot. I am not in the pilot. I don’t even know if the show has been picked up to go to series. I assume it will be.”
That itself may not be the end of things, though. As it stands, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot’s pilot has finished filming, but that’s it. There’s no series order, and most likely not finalized scripts for more. If and when the show is picked up is when we can expect to hear much more about returning characters and actors, and so it’s possible things could change, and a place could be found for Cordelia. She deserves it.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is available to stream on Hulu.
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