Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a pop culture phenomenon, and fans mourned the show's season 7 finale, but why did Joss Whedon's show really end?
Unfortunately for fans of Joss Whedon's long-running TV show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer came to an end after season 7, but why did it happen? Was it canceled?
Buffy the Vampire Slayer had a long lifespan, beginning with a 1992 movie starring Kristy Swanson as the titular Slayer before being adapted for a TV series under Whedon's direction in 1997. It effectively dodged the cancellation bullet once before, but switched networks from The WB to UPN. Some fans argue that season 5's finale, "The Gift", should have ended the show, but there was still life left in Buffy, and more adventures to tell according to Whedon, so the show went on. However, as is true of many long-running TV shows, there's often only so much more to give, and it's best to find a natural conclusion and end on a high note, rather than continually moving forward just for the sake of it.
Part of the magic of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is how it never wore out its welcome. Even after the switch to UPN, season 6 took a darker turn that lost some audience members and changed the tone of the show forever. Season 7 was a return to form for Whedon's show, and saw Buffy and her Scooby Gang rallying for one final fight—and it felt final. Seven years is a long time for any group of actors—especially actors who started so young, and were in the early stages of their careers in the beginning of Buffy the Vampire Slayer—to stay committed to a project. This is the primary reason cited for why the show reached its natural conclusion after season 7, especially where star Sarah Michelle Gellar was concerned.
Sarah Michelle Gellar summed it up best in an exclusive interview with EW in 2003:
"Buffy, in this incarnation, is over."
If Gellar was ready to cut ties with the project, it just didn't make sense to continue without her. The casting change between Swanson and Gellar was hardly felt, as there were several years between the movie and the beginnings of the TV show and, over the years, Gellar became the definitive Buffy Summers. While season 5 did kill off Buffy, season 7 let her live to fight another day, yet the goodbye in "Chosen" was felt all the same. Whedon could have continued Buffy the Vampire Slayer with Faith or through adapting numerous spin-off ideas, which ultimately never came to fruition, but it wouldn't have been worth it.
The seemingly collaborative decision between Whedon and Gellar to end the show was at least done on their terms, unlike the spin-off series, Angel, which was abruptly canceled, and ended with season 5 a year later, in 2004. Season 7 is occasionally criticized for being a weak ending to the show, but in many ways it's a full circle pivot that takes the show back to where it began. The Slayer fights the ultimate evil—the First Evil—and ends up sharing her burden with an army of Potential Slayers. Throughout its seven season run, Buffy as a character experienced a lot of growth, though one continuing theme was her feeling of loneliness, of being on her own despite the fact that her season 1 death changed the Slayer line forever.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer did continue, in a sense, through several "seasons" of comic books, published by Dark Horse Comics. While this tied up some loose ends made by the series and saw additional character growth and futures for many of the show's beloved characters, for many fans, it wasn't the same as watching it play out live on television. Few shows have managed to accomplish what Buffy has: an enduring legacy that is still talked about, relevant, and popular almost twenty years after going off the air. There's been discussion of a reboot with Whedon and Monica Owusu-Breen, so it's possible the Slayer will see a new incarnation for the next generation of fans.
