Buffy Animated

Buffy, The Vampire Slayer, from creator Joss Whedon, lasted several seasons on The WB Network and UPN, ending in 2003. Now there’s extensive talk of a revival — this time in animated form.

According to this week’s print edition of TV Guide, the new animated series will feature Buffy Summers and the rest of the Sunnydale gang back in high school. A few of the original cast is slated to return, with Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy) instead deciding to focus on her blossoming film career. Giselle Lore will instead fill the vacated role. Nicholas Brendon (Xander), Alyson Hannigan (Willow) and Anthony Head (Giles) will be voicing their respective characters on the new series. The is no word yet on whether David Boreanaz (Angel), Michelle Trachtenberg (Dawn), Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia Chase) or James Marsters (Spike) will be involved with the show at all.

Presently, the show is being developed by Jeph Loeb, a well-known comic-book writer and a writer on the popular Smallville series that airs on The WB Network, as well as Whedon at his production company, Mutant Enemy. The show will be pitched to several networks in the next month or so.

Originally, the show was announced three seasons ago, but it never made to air, dying early in production. According to published media reports, much of the staff from that original animation pitch have returned to work on this pitch.