One of the most iconic TV characters of all time is without a doubt Buffy Summers. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a touchstone for so many people that it's almost impossible to imagine a world without the quippy slayer who turned gender expectations in horror inside out. After Hollywood put Buffy in their top three favorite female characters of all time, Sarah Michelle Gellar did an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. During the conversation, Gellar shared where she hopes Buffy would be today, almost 15 years after she finished saving the world (a lot).
Gellar's answer reveals just how well she still knows Buffy after all this time. Buffy spent her formative years slaying vampires and fighting monsters, but she always yearned for a normal life. At the end of the series, the slayer power was shared among every girl with the potential to be a slayer, seemingly giving Buffy a chance to take a break from always being the hero, if that was what she wanted. Gellar told THR,
"The burden of saving the world a lot always weighed heavily on her, so for her sake, I hope she is somewhere on a beautiful beach located far away from any Hellmouth."
While there is a series of comic books continuing Buffy's adventures, Gellar's idea is too beautiful to resist. With a world full of slayers, Buffy deserves some peace in her adulthood. She spent her entire youth focusing on keeping everyone around her safe, imagining her having enough free time to finally see what kind of cookie she turned out to be should make fans smile.
In the age of TV reboots, it is impossible to talk about a beloved series without also wondering if there's a possibility it could come back from the dead. The possibility of a Buffy reboot is tantalizing, but given the show's beautiful ending, it's not necessary. THR asked Gellar her thoughts on the character picking up her stake again, and the actor eloquently pointed out why it might be better to let Buffy rest.
"I have always believed that what was so unique about the show was the use of horrors of those formative years," Gellar explained. "With high school and college as a backdrop, we were able to address racism, identity, bullying, guilt, death, first love and heartbreak using the demons as metaphors for the demons we all experience. I am not sure how that translates into adulthood, although I am sure it could."
Once again, Gellar is right. Buffy is an unforgettable, landmark character, but she's given the world everything she has to offer. If anyone has earned a nice retirement in a beach community, it's Buffy Summers.
