DAWN! part two
Season 8 Update (from Sci Fi Wire [url=http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/art-main.html?2002-09/23/14.00.tv]http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/art-main.html?2002-09/23/14.00.tv[/url] )
Buffy Season 8 Mulled
Marti Noxon, executive producer of UPN’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, told SCI FI Wire that producers are already mulling options for how to continue the show beyond the upcoming seventh season, with or without star Sarah Michelle Gellar. Among the possibilities: a show centered on Buffy’s little sister Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg) or one centered on wayward slayer Faith (Eliza Dushku), Noxon said in an interview. Gellar’s contract expires at the end of the new season, and she has previously expressed doubts about returning full-time.
An eighth season of Buffy “is a discussion that we’ve begun to start having … with both [producing studio] Fox and UPN,” Noxon said. “But it’s really … stages. I think the main thing that [creator] Joss [Whedon] feels, and I also feel, is that we wouldn’t continue if we didn’t feel that we had something exciting to bring to the table. If it felt like we were desperately trying to keep the franchise alive, that’s not something that I think interests him. I think it’s much more about, can we come up with a concept that might be either Sarah-free or Sarah-light that feels, you know, like a show worth doing? And if we’re all excited about doing it and have the same level of passion, then gung ho, you know? But if we don’t, I think nobody sort of wants to see a pale imitation of what was. It’s a tough call. It’s a tough thing. We’ll see. But we do have some ideas. And Joss has some great ideas. And we’re kicking those all around. And we don’t know. Sarah has not said definitively no, but I think it’s pretty likely that she’d at least want to scale her involvement back.”
In the upcoming seventh-season premiere, viewers will see a much more active Dawn. Is that setting the stage for Trachtenberg to take up Gellar’s stake and cross? “We don’t really have a firm plan,” Noxon said. “I mean, that’s obviously one of the possibilities. But we haven’t settled on that at all. … I think it was just time to grow Dawn up a little bit. And it’s just sort of a natural thing that she would want to sort of follow in Buffy’s footsteps. So it’s much more about story. And if at the end of that process, we’re like, ‘Wow, she’s a natural replacement,’ then that might happen. But it’s not a foregone conclusion at all.”
Noxon confirmed that Faith will return toward the end of the seventh season. But whether or not she’s poised to replace Buffy “depends entirely on [Dushku],” who has an active film career, Noxon said. “But it’s definitely a very interesting possibility. I know some fans … are pretty excited about that. So we’ll see. I mean, I can really see that show. I know what that show is. And so that’s nice, you know? She’s such a good character. And Eliza’s very charismatic. So I can see what that show would be. But again, many, many hurdles. And I don’t even know if Eliza’s interested.” Buffy kicks off its new season on Sept. 24 in its regular 8 p.m. ET/PT Tuesday time slot.