Angel

Joss Whedon, co-creator of The WB’s Angel, told SCI FI Wire that he doubts that Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Sarah Michelle Gellar will ever appear on the spinoff series. "I don’t know that we’ll see her on the show," Whedon said in an interview at the Los Angeles Comic Book and Science Fiction Convention. "I don’t know that she’ll ever pick up a stake again. I don’t know. But that’s really something you’d have to ask her."

Gellar has recently been quoted as saying that she probably won’t appear in an Angel episode this season, which could be the show’s last. Whedon said that he hasn’t received word on Angel’s fate yet, but that it would be nice if Gellar reciprocates the favor Angel star David Boreanaz made by appearing in Buffy’s final episodes.

"If it became definitely the end of Angel, that might come up," Whedon said. "But since we don’t know, you know, we’re counting on anything. You know, Angel really is its own thing, and the cast ... they have a lot to go through anyway. I would love to see her on the show. But we’re definitely prepared for anything."

Whedon added that he’s not worried about whether Angel’s current season, its fifth, is its last. "I’m concentrating on making this season," he said. "And we have an ending that has a lot of closure, but will also lead in very nicely to next season if ... they have one." Angel, which airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT, returns with original episodes in January 2004.