Alyson Hannigan Says No Thanks To The Buffy The Vampire Slayer Remake

Alyson Hannigan as Dark Willow on Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 6
(Image credit: 20th Century Fox Television)

There’s been talk for months now about a reboot of Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer series. Plans are underway to relaunch it as a new movie franchise (more on that here), a movie franchise with no connection to the popular television series and worse, no involvement from creator Joss Whedon.

Today we had a chance to sit down with former Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Alyson Hannigan. She played Buffy’s nerdy yet loveable sidekick Willow during the show’s run and for my money it was she, not Buffy, who was by far the best part of the series. Willow’s one of the biggest reasons Buffy worked as well as it did and though Hannigan has now moved on to other things (like How I Met Your Mother) it’s almost impossible to imagine any Buffy project without her. Well start imagining.

We asked her about those Buffy remake plans and she seems as perturbed by the whole thing as the show’s fans. When we asked her what she thought of Buffy without Joss she said, "Yeah, and that's a very big mistake in my opinion.” Whedon wrote both the 90s movie and ran the subsequent spin-off television show she was a part of. So it makes sense that Hannigan says, “I mean if Joss isn't involved, it's only the title."

And without Joss, there’s no way they’ll get her involved in it. Not even for a cameo. She says, "Not without Joss. Joss is the only reason that we would go back. I mean, it's just ridiculous to think of that TV show without Joss. That's just silly to me… And all the fans know that, too, so I don't know what they're thinking."

Hannigan’s reaction to remake echos that of former Giles Anthony Stewart Head, who, rather gleefully trashed the notion a few weeks ago here. Look it's no mystery why they’re doing this. Vampires are hot and let’s face it, Twilight is basically just a watered down Buffy ripoff so why not bring back the real deal and get rich. But I’m pretty sure nobody wants it. Not the fans, not the Buffy cast, and probably not Twilight fans who are too busy swooning over Edward to notice anything else.