Amber Benson and Charisma Carpenter Talk Evolving the Buffyverse through Audible Original Slayers and Hopes for a Second Season

By Anna Govert  |  October 11, 2023 | 10:45am
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Amber Benson and Charisma Carpenter Talk Evolving the Buffyverse through Audible Original Slayers and Hopes for a Second Season
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The Buffyverse, the collective universe of WB shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, is seemingly as immortal as its bumpy-faced vampires. 

Even 20 years after the original series’ finale, these characters and this universe keep capturing the hearts and minds of viewers new and old, and for good reason. Often hailed as one of the best supernatural TV shows ever made, Buffy the Vampire Slayer often found fantastical ways to tell very human stories, allowing its characters to grow and learn and make positive change in the world through their actions and connections to each other. It’s that lasting legacy that made being a part of the upcoming Audible Original Slayers: A Buffyverse Story a no-brainer for Amber Benson and Charisma Carpenter. 

Benson, who serves as co-writer, co-director, and stars as Tara in the series, says the idea was originally born in her desire to “see [her] friend Charisma Carpenter as a Slayer.” And slay she does, in the 9-episode podcast from Audible. The series takes place 10 years after the finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, following Spike (James Marsters) as he gets sucked into inter-reality madness when Slayer Cordelia (Carpenter) arrives in Los Angeles to ask for his help in saving her world from Drusilla (Juliet Landau). Coming face to face with variations of Anya (Emma Caulfield) and Tara (Benson), Spike must also look to his friends Clem (James Charles Leary) and Giles (Anthony Head) to help sole-Slayer Cordelia take down his former flame, all while mentoring baby Slayer Indira (Laya DeLeon Hayes). What follows is a deeply immersive story that takes place just to the left of the center of the Buffyverse, expanding on these characters and this mythos in a new (yet still familiar) way. 

“It was about an evolution of this mythology and bringing in really cool people who I love and consider family,” Benson elaborates. “I mean, getting to work with these people who I adore, all of them, from James [Marsters] to James Leary to Emma [Caulfield], Laya [DeLeon Hayes], who is incredible, Juliet [Landau], and we had all these newcomers like Julia Cho and Juno Dawson—we have this incredible group of people who just… everyone was a gem. I mean, Tony Head was in from the UK on the screen, we were working with him while he was in another studio.” On working with Carpenter, Benson lamented the fact that the two never worked together on the original series, “We’ve been in the same world for a long time, and we became friendly because of conventions and stuff,” but there was a “transcendent moment” while filming a scene together on The Griddle House in which “the seeds for Slayers and Cordelia the Vampire Slayer were sewn.”

As for Carpenter, returning to the Buffyverse was a cathartic and emotional experience: “I had a lot of unresolved sadness around how it all went down before, how it ended. So, to be involved with a Buffyverse story where [Cordelia] is empowered with Slayer abilities and is dealing with complex issues […]  it was surreal.” Carpenter continued, “To be able to do those two things and then be funny was really the most challenging thing I think I’ve faced playing Cordelia in all of those years. I always felt like [going back to her would be like] jumping on a bike and you just peddle and you’re back on, but I really did feel clunky starting out, I didn’t really understand the assignment at first and I really needed guidance on that. ‘Who is she? I don’t know who she is? Is she world weary, because this is written snarky—is she still snarky? I don’t know how to go about this!’ I felt a little bit lost and I had to have that conversation with the creators, both Christopher Golden and Amber Benson, and getting to be challenged in this new way… I have no words to explain the emotions around it.” 

And when speaking of her experience working with this cast, both those that she has worked with in the past and those she hasn’t, Carpenter sang the praises of her co-stars: “Working with this batch of people who, really, I feel are underrated and should all be award-winning actors in their own right, I have impostor syndrome! What a privilege to be able to elevate my abilities—working with Juliet [Landau] just elevates me, working with Amber [Benson] elevates me, working with James [Marsters] elevates my skill; I’m learning things, I’m always wanting to learn and see and analyze the choices that are being made and how they’re being made: ‘Oh, that’s an interesting way to deliver that, I never thought of that!’ I love what I do, so getting to do it again? I could cry. I’m so grateful I got to do it.”

I opened the interview by telling both Benson and Carpenter that I binged the entire series over a single weekend, which was met with genuine delight. “Oh my god, really?” Benson laughed, while Carpenter asked, “All nine hours? Oh that’s great!” And when I mistakenly said I “watched” the whole thing, Benson pointed out the truly immersive nature of the series: “You know what I love, you said ‘I watched’ and then you corrected yourself, cause it’s so—you see it all in your head! It’s so intimate and vibrant and juicy. I love that!” 

The series, in its reality-jumping antics and magical mayhem, ties up most of its loose ends, but keeps a few exciting threads dangling for a potential second season. “I would love to do a second season. We’re playing in the Disney sandbox because they are the people that are in charge of us, they have the license, and we love them and we want them to greenlight a second season ASAP,” Benson remarked.

And she’s not alone in wanting more Slayers, Benson says the rest of the cast are itching for more as well. “To be able to have a diverse, amazing cast who wants to come back—so often you work on things and people are like ‘Okay, glad this is over, I’ll never see any of you again!’ This is the opposite. This is like ‘Can we just go ahead and start the second season right now?’ Emma Caulfield was like ‘Alright, I’m ready to go again, I love doing audio work, let’s do another one right now!’”

While so many series have found themselves on the receiving end of reboots and revivals in the recent past (with even a Buffy TV reboot in the works from disgraced series creator Joss Whedon that has since been quietly canceled), the larger Buffyverse has remained unmined outside of its continued expansion in the pages of Dark Horse and BOOM! Studios comics and standalone novels. Carpenter believes Slayers is the end-all-be-all for any kind of revival, “I really feel like we did something special and I’m just so grateful that—this is as close as we’re ever going to get to a reboot [of Buffy the Vampire Slayer], and I think it could go a very long time. And that makes me happy because this is the best fandom ever.” 

Slayers: A Buffyverse Story premieres Thursday, October 12th on Audible. 

Anna Govert is the TV Editor of Paste Magazine. For any and all thoughts about TV, film, and her unshakable love of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, you can follow her @annagovert.

 
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