Why Buffy Matters More Now than Ever Before

Sarah Michelle Gellar, 2011 Comicon. Photo by Rach. Used via Creative Common license Attribution 2.0 Generic Deed.

“If the apocalypse comes, beep me.”

—Buffy Summers, Season 1, Episode 5 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer: “Never Kill a Boy on the First Date”

By Veronica Downey

Y2K was still over two years away, but in one sentence, Buffy Summers summed up her priorities in a way that made sense to the Gen X/Millennials watching weekly on the WB network (eventually UPN, where its final two seasons would take place).  Buffy the Vampire Slayer debuted as a mid-season replacement in 1997, and soon it would become not just a must-tune-in but a cult classic to those who watched.  Its appeal seemed to be not just reserved to my age, those growing up on MTV in the era I had been born, when music videos still mattered, but one that eclipsed things like generation—my mother, born in the 1950’s and a teenager during Woodstock, would laugh as often as I would, if not necessarily at the same jokes.  It became something we shared—our age not really mattering, just finding relief—comic and otherwise—in the characters we became to know as if they were parts of our lives.  And maybe they were?

“Seize the moment, cause tomorrow you might be dead.”

It’s been over twenty years now since Buffy said goodbye, but it is also right now that whispers about a NEW Buffy are on the lips of many a Buffyverse nerd.  In early 2025, news reports from Variety (Variety Staff) and Deadline (Deadline Staff) emerged, indicating a sequel with Gellar in a recurring role, with it set to air on Hulu.  “What could they possibly do with the show now?”  A proud nerd, I wondered where—and if—Buffy even had a place in today’s world.  I spent a lot of time thinking about this before realizing that Buffy matters more now than it ever has before.  Before I can tell you all the ways it matters, I need to convince you to accept that things like television shows can be not just meaningful but more than that, that they are part and parcel of growing up.

From Leave it to Beaver to The Brady Bunch to Beverly Hills, 90210 to ER and Grey’s Anatomy, our prime television shows take up not just our time while we watch them but time the next day discussing them with coworkers at a coffee break, or to our friends mid studying.  They don’t just affect how we relate to the things we watch but can even affect how we handle real life decisions.  They affect fashion trends, advertising, and more.  In the noughties, Felicity cutting her hair didn’t just inspire copycats much like the “Rachel” cut did with Friends, it practically destroyed the series itself.  Any decision by a star of a show Felicity, Friends and Buffy could boost the cast to success or doom them to failure, and that’s directly linked to our reactions to what we watch.

“I laugh in the face of danger.  Then I hide until it goes away.”

The enduring popularity of Buffy shouldn’t exclude its creator, a certain Joss Whedon with whom you are doubtlessly familiar with, regardless of your age when Buffy aired.  It’s also a name likely known for less than stellar reasons these days.  Joss Whedon is, of course, the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, (Whedon) but he also is responsible for shows like Firefly (Whedon) and its film continuation Serenity (Whedon), and blockbusters like The Cabin in the Woods (Whedon, 2012), The Avengers (Whedon), and Avengers: Age of Ultron (Whedon).  For many years, particularly during Buffy’s unparalleled success, he was particularly famous for writing strong women.  Tough, unapologetic, multi-faceted women who didn’t need or want your acceptance, and who did was what right because it was right.

Capable of tremendous strength but also of epic failures; they were everything we wanted to be but just as human, just as flawed and fallible as the rest of us.  The character of Buffy Summers was one so many of us admired, but she was also someone we could relate to.  She was, of course, a vampire slayer with superhuman abilities.  She could make multiple back flips, land each one perfectly and not have a hair out of place—all while wearing stylish (high heeled often!) footwear.  Yet she also suffered from the things most teenage girls did – first love, peer acceptance, complex family structures and final exams. Overall, finding her place in the world. Indeed, it was a credit to the writers and the actors at keeping Buffy, a fantastic character, one we could completely relate to and imagine being friends with.

“Death is your gift.”

Buffy was never as easy to relate to than when she was doing the unpopular thing, the things her friends didn’t understand—trying to protect a sister who wasn’t really even her sister but a key to unlock dimensions that had been given human form and memories that needed protection only Buffy could provide, trying to have her friends accept Spike, a vampire with a soul, as being worthy of forgiveness despite his many past transgressions.  The final season depicted several of the characters facing the darkest parts of themselves, from Willow’s witchcraft continuing to grow to briefly ousting Buffy as a leader. Across seven seasons, the show explored what good and evil really mean, challenging us to question who the real monsters are—and whether heroism is ever simple.

“There’s only one thing more powerful in this world than evil, and that’s us.”

In an age where the sitting president has been recorded talking about grabbing women by the genitals, and Roe vs Wade has been overturned, it’s hard to say exactly where feminist television – or television with a feminist themed story – has a place – or if it has one at all.  Beliefs today are extremely polarized.  Perhaps a supernatural based story with a female protagonist and her pals (the “Scoobie Gang” or “Scoobies, based on the popular Scooby-Doo cartoon mystery series in which Gellar would, ironically, play the part of Daphne in while between shooting Buffy episodes for the 2000 film), doesn’t have the place in network television it once did?

For one, does anyone even watch TV anymore?  Streaming stations like Netflix and Hulu have made cable a far less popular choice.  Stations like MTV, which was itself an entity of the late 20^th century, are essentially becoming extinct now.  According to the statistics I was able to find, since May 2021 there has been a 71% increase in streaming, and in May 2025 streaming services surpassed broadcast and cable stations for viewership for the first time. (Nielsen Media Research) Where would Buffy part 2 find its home in an age where many viewers only pay for streaming services?

Next are the actors themselves.  Nearly twenty-five years later, the cast are largely in their late forties or older.  This is problematic in general when it comes to appearance and youth obsessed Hollywood, but it becomes an entire logistics problem when dealing with supernatural characters who are immortal and not supposed to age a day.

Third, who is the audience now?  This may perhaps be the most important question.  Just as the actors grew up, the audience has as well.  The age group that broadcasters and advertisers are notoriously after is the 15–24-year-old group.  With disposable incomes and still forming habits, this is the most desirable age gap to advertise and market for.  Those in Gen Z (about mid-90s to 2010) and gen Alpha (2010 to 2024) don’t have the nostalgia older generations do.  Are the fans of Buffy even watching network television anymore, or simply streaming it?

Buffy series logo. Image in the public domain.

“No weapons, no friends, no hope. What’s left?” “Me.”

Buffy did an excellent job in saying goodbye to us after seven years without telling us exactly where they’d be going.  As Whedon particularly likes to show (see The Avengers), we saw our small group of fighters face impossible odds against otherworldly evil.  Then, after the deaths of some fan favorites, Dawn asks Buffy, “What are we going to do now?”   Gellar’s Buffy just smiles, as the final credits roll.

So…what now?  That is the question that remains to be seen.  Geller herself is vocally excited about the prospect of telling a new chapter, with a new younger slayer – or slayers.  Buffy famously had a way of putting real world problems into the Buffyverse and showing that Buffy really was just like us (mostly).  It’s doubtless that a new Buffy wouldn’t also strive to tackle current issues with today’s youth and what it means to live in today’s world, especially as a young woman, as sensitively as it did twenty-five years ago.

Buffy took on apocalypse (plural) yet also dealt with unrequited crushes.  She had the world on her shoulders but battled through the end of friendships.  She could be beaten up by supernatural bad guys, but she couldn’t prevent or beat her mother’s aneurysm or death due to it.  She was a superhero, but she was like us too.  These days, it can feel harder than ever to find something that’s both entertaining and relatable.  We may not slay vampires, but we all have our own demons.

“Death is your gift.”

So, what is Buffy’s ultimate message?  What is it that we can learn still from her?  I argue that while we may not know yet what to expect from Buffy part two, it’s something worth looking at and ahead for.  While studying for this piece, I came across quite a lot of philosophical articles about Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  I’m certainly not the only one who sees meaning in the Scoobies, nor the only one who feels the pang of nostalgia when I hear the intro or outro of the theme song on a cable station’s rerun.  I am of the belief that Buffy, a strong female lead who is unapologetic and doesn’t bow to authority and whose strength comes foremost from herself, is exactly what we need today.  Indeed, Buffy 2 may very well be the show we don’t realize we need.  It’s still too early to know if this will be a show about one young woman or several, but it comes at a time when female heroism is deeply needed, and for this reason I will be tuning in when the next chapter of the Buffyverse begins.

Perhaps the most painful moment in the entire series is when Buffy decides to sacrifice her life to save the world.  She has an epiphany at that moment that this was her destiny, and she tells her sister that she had to do this, it is part of what being the Slayer means. “The hardest thing in the world is to live in it.  Be brave. Live.  For me,” she says before jumping to her death.

Buffy’s ultimate message is resilience—the idea that strength comes not from perfection but from perseverance. While the details of the upcoming sequel remain uncertain, its potential significance is clear. In a world grappling with polarization, gender inequality, and cultural upheaval, stories that center unapologetic female heroism are more vital than ever. Buffy mattered in 1997 when she challenged stereotypes, and she mattered in 2003 when she reminded us that sacrifice and courage define true leadership. Today, she matters even more. Whether the revival focuses on one Slayer or many, it offers an opportunity to reimagine empowerment for a new generation. For that reason, I’ll be watching—not just for nostalgia, but because Buffy’s fight is still ours.

Works Cited

Deadline Staff. “Sarah Michelle Gellar to Return in Buffy Revival.” Deadline, 15 Jan. 2025, www.deadline.com/article-link.

Nielsen Media Research. “Streaming Surpasses Cable for First Time.” Nielsen, May 2025, www.nielsen.com/article-link.

Variety Staff. “Buffy Sequel in Development at Hulu.” Variety, 15 Jan. 2025, www.variety.com/article-link.

Whedon, Joss, creator. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The WB, 1997–2003.

Whedon, Joss, creator. Firefly. Fox, 2002.

Whedon, Joss, director. Serenity. Universal Pictures, 2005.

Whedon, Joss, director. The Cabin in the Woods. Lionsgate, 2012.

Whedon, Joss, director. The Avengers. Marvel Studios, 2012.

Whedon, Joss, director. Avengers: Age of Ultron. Marvel Studios, 2015.

Veronica Downey is a sophomore at CT State Manchester.