When news of a reboot of the ’90s cult classic Buffy The Vampire Slayer was released, it incurred a good amount of backlash from people. The backlash stemmed from the fact that placing a black actress as Buffy in the reboot of a classic that had mostly white actors is problematic.

Some have criticized the reboot for being the “black version of a white property” is lazy, especially when there are a plethora of black writers and creatives with compelling scripts that are ripe for a television adaptation. With PoC reboots of Charmed and Roswell on the horizon, creating a new show with a black character and black writers that is wholly original is needed and more importantly, wanted.

In a statement posted to her Twitter account, showrunner Monica Owusu-Breen addressed the backlash. For some genre writers, it’s Star Wars. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is my Star Wars. Before I became a writer, I was a fan. For seven seasons, I watched Buffy Summers grow up, find love, kill that love. There is only one Buffy. One Xander, one Willow, Giles, Cordelia, Oz, Tara, Kennedy, Faith, Spike, Angel … They can’t be replaced..It could be time to meet a new Slayer. … And that’s all I can say,” she said in part.

The Buffy reboot will be pitched to cable and streaming outlets this summer by Fox 21 TV Studios.

Check out Monica Owusu-Breen’s entire Twitter post below:

pic.twitter.com/Sdz4oKh3gM

— monicaowusubreen (@monicabreen) July 26, 2018

Monica Owusu-Breen

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