ET can confirm that writer Monica Owusu-Breen has been hired to pen the reimagining of Joss Whedon's beloved series.
Be warned, blood suckers, there's a new slayer coming to town!
ET can confirm that a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot is in development, with the creator of the beloved original series, Joss Whedon, on board to executive produce. 20th Century Fox Television has tapped writer Monica Owusu-Breen, who previously worked with Whedon and his brother Jed on Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., to pen the pilot script, which will feature a black actress stepping into the main slayer role made famous by Sarah Michelle Gellar.
Gail Berman, Joe Earley, Fran Kazui and Kaz Kazui (who produced the 1992 Buffy film, written by Whedon, which inspired the TV series) will also serve as executive producers on the project.
The original Buffy the Vampire Slayer series ran from 1997-2003 on The WB and UPN, serving as a linchpin of The WB's teen-focused lineup in the late '90s and early '00s. It also launched a successful spinoff series, Angel, centered on David Boreanaz's titular vampire character.
The supernatural drama followed high schooler Buffy Summers as she slayed vampires with help from friends Willow Rosenberg (Alyson Hannigan) and Xander Harris (Nicholas Brendon). As if being a teenager wasn't already complicated enough, Summers falls in love with a kind-hearted vampire, Angel.
"It's the ultimate metaphor: horrors of adolescence manifesting through these actual monsters," Gellar told Entertainment Weekly when the cast reunited last year to celebrate their 20th anniversary. "It's the hardest time of life."
Boreanaz agreed, reflecting on how Buffy's characters and storylines connected with fans well beyond the seven seasons that the show aired.
"When you're going through a really horrible part of your life, like your teenage years, you feel alone," he said. "And Buffy was a way to tell the audience you’re not alone."
Hannigan, who went on to star in How I Met Your Mother, called Buffy the "role of a lifetime."
"I met the love of my life," the mother-of-two shared of her now-husband, Alexis Denisof, who played Watcher Wesley on the show. "And just to get to go to work every day and have Joss sort of train me — I’ll never have a better experience than that."
See more Buffy in the video below.
RELATED CONTENT:
