On day three of the 2002 San Diego Comic-Con, Buffy creator, Joss Whedon took time out of his very busy schedule to speak to his adoring fans. Whedon arrived alone and opened his discussion with very truthful words, "I'm tired. I'm so very, very tired."
Whedon's exhaustion is to be expected. He's currently preparing
for the seventh season of Buffy The Vampire Slayer,
the fourth season of Angel, filming a new sci-fi
series called Firefly debuting in November on
Fox and trying to finish the comic book mini-series Fray,
set in the distant Buffy-verse future.
Since Dark Horse was responsible for getting Joss to the
convention it's only natural that he updated the fans on Fray's
status. The book has been severely delayed due to his busy
schedule. Whedon did promise that he will finish the book
in time for our grandchildren to enjoy. If you've never read
Fray, it's excellent, but at this point it's probably
best to wait for a trade paperback.
Whedon also mentioned that after Fray is over, he
does have other ideas for comic books that he'd like to explore.
It's simply a matter of when he'll have time to write them.
Fans dictated that Whedon next address the numerous rumors
surrounding the upcoming season of Buffy. First off,
Whedon did confirm that Faith (Eliza Dushku) will be
back for several episodes next season.
Amber Benson, Tara on Buffy, recently addressed
the rumors that she would be back next season despite her
character dying. "That is something that I cannot talk about.
It is something that only Joss Whedon knows the answer to."
Well, if Whedon has the answer, he didn't spill the beans
at Comic-Con. He simply said we'd have to wait and see.
One person who did spill the beans is Emma Caulfield,
at the Comic-Con promoting her new horror film Tooth
Fairy. Emma let it slip during her panel that her
character, Anya, will be singing in the next season of Buffy.
A fan asked Whedon about this and while he said Emma wasn't
supposed to say anything about it, it is true. Turns out that
on the fifth episode of the next season, Anya will have a
flashback to the Once More With Feeling episode and
she will sing a ballad. I guess the Once More With Feeling
soundrack that's due out in September is going to need a second
edition.
In another random note, Whedon did mention that he'd love to have Spike's former lover, Drusilla, return to the Buffy cast.
Before moving away from Buffy, Whedon did tell fans that UPN does want Buffy to return for an eighth season in 2004. Wether or not Sarah Michelle Gellar or the rest of the cast would return to do it is still undecided. Whedon did say that if SMG didn't sign for another season, any one of the supporting cast could carry on a show in a spin-off type deal. Though he didn't name names, we already know he's working on the Giles spin off Ripper with Anthony Stewart Head. (granted, that's for the BBC.)
Whedon did give fans a sneak peek at his new sci-fi show
Firefly. About five minutes of the middle of an episode
were shown and to be honest, I was underwhelmed. Maybe it
was because it was the middle of the episode, but the clip
made no sense. People in western style outfits fought and
argued aboard a rustic space ship. Director Bryan Singer
whipped fans into a frenzy with his 30 second trailer of X-Men
2, but the five minute clip from Firefly lacked
any real excitement. We'll just have to wait until November
to be blown away.
Whedon wrapped up his trip to San Diego Comic-Con with hearty thanks to all the fans and then proceeded to the Dark Horse Comics booth for a signing session. After that, I'm almost positive he went somewhere and took a nap.
