INTERVIEW EXCERPTS:
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY:
Issue No. 40 is clearly setting up Season 9, and makes it seem like it is going to be far more human-scaled.
JOSS WHEDON:
It will be more like the television show. With the comic, we just sort of said, “Wheee!” Ultimately, “Wheee!” caught up with us in a cavalcade of mythology. It became clear, as it did with the show, that people really liked when Buffy’s adventures reflect what she’s going through in her life [and] what we’re going through in our lives at that age. That was the thing in season 8 that we didn’t tap into as much as I think we ultimately should have.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY:
You did seem to touch on that idea when you, essentially, made Buffy a god with her own idyllic world, and she pretty much rejected it right off the bat.
JOSS WHEDON:
Yeah. I feel like we’re true to the characters. It was just that very basic mission statement of, “You know what, I’m going through this, too.” Not a lot of people are leading armies. Buffy, part of her charm is that the fact that, outside the mystical world, she was nobody. And it was interesting to put her in that power position and to play on that grand scale. But ultimately, I think the fans more enjoy her when she is the little underdog and not the little overlord.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY:
You had Xander and Dawn ultimately become a romantic item, and you outed vampires to the world. It seems like you wanted to advance the story in a really meaningful, significant way on a lot of fronts.
JOSS WHEDON:
You can’t just sit around and spin your wheel with these guys. The show lasted on the idea that people are constantly changing. What makes them interesting? So, is Willow destined to go dark? How is that future going to unfold? Who is in love with whom? Who can’t be with whom? That’s part of what makes their interaction rich. It’s not just, “We’re clever and funny, the murder is solved.” It’s just not the way I write. It was still very clear to me that Xander and Dawn were going to end up together by the very start [of Season 8]. And actually, I was surprised that anybody was surprised. All their interactions were so tight, and occasionally weirdly physical. It was all pointing there. He tried to have a relationship with somebody else, but some prick killed her.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY:
In the Fray storyline from “Season 8″ — in which Buffy got sucked into the world of your spin-off comic about a slayer living far into the future — we met Dark Willow again, and we seem to be heading in that direction the way we left Willow at the end of “Season 8.”
JOSS WHEDON:
Well, maybe. It’s a question we’re holding out there right now: Is that her destiny? Can she get her powers back? This idea of magic being taken out of the world — that’s going to be her personal obsession and will result in a miniseries. She can have center stage for a while. Whether or not that means that’ll send her to become the evil Fray’d version of herself is something we’re going to dangle.
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