'Buffy' Reboot Sparks Surprise, Dismay

Don't mess with the fans. This is a lesson Warner Brothers will surely learn, as they plan to re-boot the much-beloved, cult television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer—without Joss Whedon or any of the original cast.

Followers of the show are notoriously fanatical, and though the series ended a few years ago, the Buffy-verse has been expanded into a still-published graphic novel series that continues the adventures of the Scooby Gang. Whedon, the show's creator, mastermind and visionary, is a hallowed figure in the fantasy entertainment world, also having launched cult shows like Firefly and Dollhouse, and currently helming the new Avengers film.

The new writer, Whit Anderson, believes that a re-boot is not unwarranted. "The thing that was so wonderful about Buffy is what made it special was so timeless,” she said in the Los Angeles Times. “The deep struggle she had with duty and destiny, that tug between what you’re supposed to be doing and what you want to be doing… That conflict was very interesting to me." Producer Charles Roven agreed. "This is a completely new reboot," he said. "It needs to be relevant to today."

But Whedon is on the fans' side. "This is a sad, sad reflection on our times, when people must feed off the carcasses of beloved stories from their youths — just because they can’t think of an original idea of their own," he said in an e-mail to E! Online. "Obviously I have strong, mixed emotions about something like this… I always hoped that Buffy would live on even after my death. But, you know, AFTER…" –AMY LEE