The Buffyverse has a ton of great characters and lore, just ripe for picking. I’m sure some of these ideas have been done in the comics or whatever, but I’m talking about spin-off SHOWS. On TV. For us to watch.
10 – Kate Lockley
Kate was a Detective for the LAPD, and ended up meeting Angel during a case, and well, her life went downhill from there. She started realising there were more supernatural things going on in the world, becoming obsessed with them, especially after her father was killed by a Vampire. She helped out a lot, but also opposed Angel on a number of occasions when things seemed to point to him being a potential murderer. In the end, she was fired from the police force, and attempted suicide, before being saved by Angel who somehow managed to enter her apartment without being invited. She believed a higher power was at work, and it looked like she had a new outlook on life. And that was the last we ever saw of her in the show. I’d like a spin-0ff to have her maybe move to a new city and somehow get another detective job, where she would again take an active interest in cases revolving around the supernatural. Maybe not the most creative idea for a show, but Elizabeth Rohm did a great job playing Kate, and simply being in the Buffyverse would open the show up to characters to make cameos and for the lore to be further explored, which is exactly what all these spin-off shows would be there to do essentially.
09 – Oz
A show about a werewolf! Oz was bitten by his little cousin and ended up becoming a werewolf in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but remained a good guy by locking himself in a cage every full moon. Eventually, when his relationship with Willow becomes strained and he questions his life as a werewolf, he disappears for a couple of years, only to return for a single episode to reveal he is able to keep the werewolf at bay even during a full moon. He leaves Sunnydale once again when Willow reveals she’s seeing Tara, and we never hear from him again. So I wanna see what the hell he got up to afterwards! Some flashbacks showing how he learned to control the werewolf would be a good starting point, then maybe after that he can get involved with a new group of demon fighters, and even learn to control the werewolf to the point of him turning and still being in control! Or maybe just have him in a new band trying to hide the fact he’s a werewolf, constantly putting him in comedy situations… :P. Nah, seriously, have him as a demon fighter who can actually control his werewolf abilities, making him more useful.
08 – Lindsey McDonald
Originally nothing more than a smart up and coming lawyer for Wolfram & Hart, Lindsey McDonald would eventually leave the firm, and the show, for 2 years. Upon his return, he wanted revenge on Angel for taking what he believed was HIS rightful place as CEO of the LA branch. He wasn’t the same man any more, as now he had demon powers, allowing him to be able to stand toe to toe with Angel and almost beat him. In the final episode he dies (omg spoiler!), and that’s that. So what I want is a spin-off showing up those two years when he wasn’t around. What did he do? Did he go straight for some demon powers and train for his eventual return? Or did that only happen after he discovered Angel was handed the LA branch of W&H? Just how DID he get those demon powers, anyway? Was he hunted down at all by W&H for leaving them? So many questions we need answering, and I’m all for seeing Christian Kane play a badass again after his great work in Leverage.
07 – Faith
Faith is one of the more interesting characters in the Buffyverse, going frmo good, to bad, and back to good again while still not being a goody two shoes stereotype like Buffy ended up most of the time. I’d love to see her story continue after the events of Buffy’s finale. Did she stick around with Buffy for a while? Team up with some of the new slayers? Stay together with Robin? Eventually go back to LA to help out Angel (which I think she does in the comics, actually)? I’d also like to see some flashbacks too of her finding out she was a slayer originally, and what exactly happened to her and her watcher at the hands of… that big fucker of a Vampire she kills in Buffy. Hell, maybe Faith could kinda go the Jessica Jones route and open up her own business and just be a rude, drunk, troubled women still trying to do what’s right. Plenty of ways to go with such a great character!
06 – Riley Finn
Originally part of a government task force known as the Initiative, Riley Finn was an outstanding soldier and on the fast path to success. However, everything within the Initiative was not as it seemed; they were experimenting on demons and looking to build a hybrid human/demon army. Along with help from Buffy and her friends, the Initiative was taken down and Riley left for a normal life. But when he realised Buffy didn’t truly love him, he took an offer to join a Military group who dealt in eliminating demons rather than capturing them to study. He returned for a one off episode with his new wife, when they needed help from Buffy to hunt down a demon. And as quick as he returned, he left again. So, why not a show based around Riley, his wife and their Military team going around the world hunting down and killing demons? Each episode could be in a different location from anywhere in the world, going after a different demon in a different situation, with bigger story arcs tying seasons together. And since most of the show would likely take place AFTER the final season of Buffy, he could even run into some of the new Slayers too, which could add something interesting as he has had past experiences with Slayers in the past!
05 – The Watchers Council
The Watchers Council has been around for a very, very long time, making it their duty to train and control each Slayer than comes along. They have vast resources and man power than we never truly got to see in Buffy, which is why I think it needs to be a spin-off! We can learn about how Watchers are trained, how they are selected to be paired with a Slayer, and what other divisions the council have and what they do (we saw their “elite” task force in Buffy and Angel when they came after Faith). Plus we’d get to know more about Quentin Travers for instance, and other members of the board. Obviously this would take place before the council was blown up by Caleb in the final season of Buffy, and could even take place long before the time of the Buffy show too if it wanted, allowing us to see different members and different Slayers.
04 – Spike
There are two ways I think a Spike spin-off could go. Either showing his life as the evil Spike, travelling the world with Drusilla and occasionally Angelus and Darla, or focusing on his life with a soul following his time in LA. Personally I’d go with the latter, as it also allows for flashbacks of his old life too should it be appropriate to the story. I’d like to see Spike be the main focus for a change, rather than with Buffy or Angel, as he does his best to become a true champion despite still being something of a rebel. Maybe take some ideas from the comics and pair him up with Angel’s son Connor. Regardless of what they do, anything with Spike as the main focus is bound to be at the very least good!
03 – Angelus
While I’d prefer the Spike show to be about him as a good guy… Angel already had that. So I want an ANGELUS show, where we follow his 150 years of destruction with Darla before he gets his soul. The first episode could be him as a human, giving us more of an insight into how much of a disappointment he is to his father, ending with Darla biting him. From there, we see how Darla teaches him about being a Vampire, and watching him evolve into the most brutal killing machine he would eventually be known as. Would be a nice change of pace too to have a TV show based around the bad guy, as we don’t often get them! We could even get a cameo of this guy to help establish his own spin-off too…
02 – Holtz
Yep! I would LOVE to see him with a spin-off show, set in his own time as we follow him hunting vampires and other demons, eventually leading to him going after Angelus and Darla, ending with him meeting Sahjhan and been given the chance to travel to the future to fight Angelus again. The time period would make a nice change from most of the other shows here, especially from the hero’s perspective (as Angelus would be set in an older time period, including when this is set). We could see how he came to know about Vampires and Demons and why he decided to fight them. Perhaps someone took him in and trained him? Maybe he was a rogue Watcher? Plenty of potential for great character development and action scenes!
01 – Rupert Giles
We were teased many times about Giles’ past in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but we never really got any information aside from some stuff during the episode in which an old demon comes back for revenge on him and his old friends. I wanna see a show about a young Giles aka RIPPER, with Ethan Rayne and others too. We could see him as the young magic rebel, leading up to how they summoned Eyghon, and how it changed him to want to become a Watcher instead. From there, we see his watcher training etc etc. Given his age when we first see him on Buffy, we have plenty of time to follow his story in a spin-off series!!!
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