Buffy Summers
Buffy Anne Summers is the title character of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer franchise. She first appeared in the 1992 film Buffy the Vampire Slayer before going on to appear in The WB/UPN 1997–2003 television series and subsequent 1998–2018 Dark Horse and 2019–present Boom! Studios comic series of the same name. The character has also appeared in the spin-off series Angel, as well as numerous expanded universe materials such as novels and video games. Buffy was portrayed by Kristy Swanson in the film and by Sarah Michelle Gellar in the television series. Giselle Loren has lent her voice to the character in both the Buffy video games and an unproduced animated series, while Kelly Albanese lent her voice to the character in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight motion comics.
Buffy Summers is the protagonist of the series, which depicts her life and adventures as she grows up. In the film, she is a high school cheerleader who learns that she is the Slayer. The television series shows Buffy carrying out her destiny in the small town of Sunnydale, built atop a portal to hell, surrounded by a group of friends and family who support her in her mission. In the comic book continuation, she is a young woman who has accepted her duties and is now responsible for training others like her.
Buffy was created by Joss Whedon to subvert the stereotypical female horror film victim—Whedon wanted to create a strong female cultural icon. In 2004, Buffy was ranked 13th on Bravo's list of The 100 Greatest TV Characters. In June 2010, Entertainment Weekly ranked her third in its list of the 100 Greatest Characters of the Last 20 Years. AOL named her the sixth Most Memorable Female TV Character. She was ranked at No. 5 in AfterEllen.com's Top 50 Favorite Female TV Characters. Buffy Summers is now viewed as one of the greatest and most iconic roles of all time.
Appearances
Film
The character of Buffy first appears in the 1992 film, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, played by Kristy Swanson. The film, written by Joss Whedon, depicts Buffy as a shallow high school cheerleader who is informed by a man named Merrick that she has been chosen by fate to battle the undead. Buffy reluctantly undergoes training in her abilities by Merrick, and as her responsibility as the Slayer causes her to become alienated from her valley girl peers, she finds friendship and romance with fellow outcast Pike. Merrick eventually comes to respect Buffy's rebellious nature, and she defeats vampire king Lothos by relying on her own contemporary style as opposed to traditional Slayer conventions. Although this film is not in continuity with the later television series, in 1999, author Christopher Golden adapted Joss Whedon's original script into a comic book entitled "The Origin", which Whedon later confirmed to be "pretty much" canonical.On May 25, 2009, The Hollywood Reporter revealed Roy Lee and Doug Davison of Vertigo Entertainment would be working with Fran Rubel Kuzui and Kazi Kuzui on a relaunch of the Buffy series for the big screen. The series would not be a sequel or prequel to the existing movie or television franchise and Joss Whedon will have no involvement in the project. None of the cast or original characters from the television series will be featured. Television series executive producer Marti Noxon later reflected that this story might have been produced by the studio to frighten Joss into taking reins of the project. Studio interest in the project has continued, however. A script was rejected in 2011.
Television
Buffy returned in Joss Whedon's television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, this time played by Sarah Michelle Gellar for all of the show's 144 episodes. In season 1, after her parents' divorce and being expelled from Hemery High School after burning a gymnasium full of vampires, Buffy begins to accept the responsibilities and dangers of her calling as the Slayer after moving to the small California town of Sunnydale. She becomes best friends with Xander Harris and Willow Rosenberg, and meets her new Watcher, the school librarian, Rupert Giles. Together they form the Scooby Gang, and work together to battle various supernatural occurrences which plague Sunnydale High. In the season finale, Buffy battles the vampiric villain known as the Master, and is drowned in the process. She is resuscitated by Xander and rises to defeat the vampire lord.In the show's second season, Buffy continues to come to terms with her destiny, finds forbidden love with benevolent vampire Angel, and clashes with new villains Spike and Drusilla. She also meets her Slayer replacement, Kendra, who was called when Buffy was killed by the Master. Kendra is later killed by Drusilla, and the next replacement is seen in season 3. In the episode "Surprise", Buffy loses her virginity to Angel, an event which triggers the loss of his soul and unleashes his sadistic alter-ego, Angelus. Angelus proceeds to subject the characters to mental and physical torture for the remainder of the season. In the final episode of season 2, Buffy is forced to reveal her identity as the Slayer to her mother, and send the newly good Angel to hell to save the world. She then leaves Sunnydale for Los Angeles in the hopes of escaping her life as the Slayer.
Season 3 sees Buffy reconnect to her calling, her friends, and her family after her departure, as well as make difficult life decisions regarding her relationship with the resurrected Angel. She must also deal with the introduction of rebellious new Slayer Faith, who becomes increasingly destructive and disloyal over the course of the season. In the season finale, Buffy stabs Faith in an attempt to save Angel's life, and leads her classmates into a climactic battle against the demonic Mayor of Sunnydale. Angel then leaves Sunnydale in hopes that Buffy can have a more normal life without him.
In the fourth season, Buffy balances her Slayer duties with her new life as a college student at UC Sunnydale. She experiences some difficulty adjusting to college life, and becomes increasingly disconnected from her friends, who all seem to be moving in different directions. Buffy eventually finds a new love interest in the form of Riley Finn, a soldier in the demon-hunting government task force known as The Initiative. She briefly joins forces with Riley's team, until they discover one of the Initiative's experiments, Adam, is creating an army of demon-human hybrids. Buffy unites with her friends to defeat Adam in a spell which invokes the power of the First Slayer. During Buffy season 4, Buffy also appears in the first season of spin-off series Angel, guest starring in the episodes "I Will Remember You" and "Sanctuary".
In season 5, Buffy battles the hell-goddess Glory, and fully embraces her destiny for the first time. A younger sister named Dawn mysteriously appears in Buffy's household, her existence having been seamlessly integrated with memories of the other characters. Buffy suffers emotional turmoil throughout this season, including the realization Dawn is not actually her sister, the deterioration of her relationship with Riley, the discovery that Spike has fallen obsessively in love with her, and her mother's death from a brain aneurysm. She takes control of her destiny and duties, informing the Watchers' Council that they work for her, not the other way around; that their job is to supply her with whatever information she requires, immediately and fully. While on a quest to learn more about her nature as the Slayer, Buffy is told "death is her gift", a message she has difficulty understanding until the episode "The Gift", in which she sacrifices herself to save Dawn and the world by diving into Glory's interdimensional portal and closing it.
Season 6 depicts Buffy's struggle with depression after her friends, believing she was trapped in a Hell dimension, performed a spell to bring her back from the dead; however, she was actually in Heaven, and feels great loss after being ripped out. Forced to take a mundane and degrading job slinging burgers at the Doublemeat Palace after realizing her family was in financial ruin, she sinks into a deep depression amid feelings of self-loathing and spends much of the season on a downward spiral alienating her friends and family and embarking on a violent sexual relationship with the vampire Spike which leaves neither satisfied and spawns dire consequences for the both of them. Aside from dealing with her emotional and psychological demons in this season, Buffy is continually targeted by a group calling themselves The Trio - Warren Mears, Andrew Wells, and Jonathan Levinson. Initially satisfied with only wreaking havoc for personal gain in Sunnydale, the Trio soon become bent on becoming powerful nemeses to the Slayer. At first, their activities are merely annoying to Buffy and the Scoobies, but Warren's intentions become darker as the season goes on, and by the end Buffy is forced to deal with the Trio as the Slayer, while Andrew and Jonathan must come to grips with Warren's betrayal against them. As the season draws to a close, Buffy is forced to battle her best friend when Willow becomes psychotic with dark magic after Warren shoots and kills Willow's girlfriend Tara and wounds Buffy in the process. Willow then tries to destroy the world to end all suffering, although Xander gets through to her in the end. Buffy then promises to change her self-destructive behavior to be there for her sister.
In the final season of the show, things start to come around for Buffy when Principal Robin Wood hires her as a school counselor for the newly rebuilt Sunnydale High School and she has repaired her relationships with Dawn and her friends. However, she is also confronted with the threat of the First Evil and becomes a reluctant leader to the Potential Slayers, who are initially respectful of her, but become increasingly more alienated by her tactics and decisions throughout the season. She unexpectedly becomes emotionally close with Spike, who has sought out his soul in an effort to prove himself to her. In the show's final episode "Chosen", Buffy shares her power with her fellow Slayers before leading them into an epic battle against an army of Turok-Han vampires. She also confesses her love to a disbelieving Spike before he sacrifices himself to save the world; as he dies, Buffy escapes Sunnydale's destruction with the surviving characters.
Following the end of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the character maintains a presence in the fifth season of Angel, but does not appear onscreen. In the episode "The Girl in Question", Angel and a resurrected Spike travel to Rome to find her, where they learn she is apparently now dating the Immortal. Sarah Michelle Gellar was approached to appear as Buffy in Angel
Between 2001 and 2004, Joss Whedon and Jeph Loeb developed a 4-minute pilot episode for Buffy the Animated Series, which was set during the show's first season. Had the series been picked up by a network, the series would have focused upon Buffy in more high-school adventures. Following a 2008 leak of the pilot to YouTube, Loeb expressed some hope the series may be resurrected in some form.