Slayers: A Buffyverse Story and the Delicate Art of Tie-In Media

Even the most casual of Buffy the Vampire Slayer viewers knows about its spinoff series Angel, some may even be vaguely aware that there were additional “seasons” of each series released in comic form from Dark Horse until 2018. However, you would be more hard pressed to find casual fans who are familiar with the stories relayed in the Buffy Classics comics (“classics” referring to any comic published by Dark Horse within the Buffyverse prior to the Season 8 launch), or those familiar with novels like “Wisdom of War” or “Queen of the Slayers.” In truth, Buffy the Vampire Slayer has never really gone away since it went off the air. Spanning videogames, novels, even more comics currently being published by BOOM! Studios, and so much more, the Buffyverse has thrived in supplemental, tie-in material for the past two decades. But now, Buffy fans are being treated to the most high-profile media tie-in to date: Audible’s Slayers: A Buffyverse Story. 

Slayers: A Buffyverse Story reunites the original cast of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (sans some critical players) to follow Spike (James Marsters) 10 years after the event of the finale as he teams up with a new, young Slayer Indira (Layla DeLeon Hayes) and 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). Cordelia is the only Slayer in her universe (unlike the canonical Buffyverse, which is overflowing with Slayers after the events of TV series finale “Chosen”), and she and Anya (Emma Caulfield) are attempting to stop Drusilla before she can turn every vampire into sun-resistant day-walkers. This unlikely bunch, also featuring Clem (James Leery), Giles (Anthony Head), Tara (Amber Benson), and more, must band together to save Slayer Cordelia’s world before it’s too late.

And if that sounds like an awesome concept, that’s because it is. The series plays out across 9 episodes, each filled with fighting and humor familiar to longtime viewers, but still extremely exciting and new in its exploration of various realities and versions of these characters we know and love. The reason this series works so well is because it learned all the right lessons from years of supplemental Buffy material and applied them to the most ambitious project in the Buffyverse since the original show. 

Slayers engages with the world of Buffy not in an effort to recreate it, but instead to expand it. Sure, there are name drops and hints at what our non-present favorite characters are up to now (Buffy herself is living across the pond, in case you were wondering), but after the opening episodes, Slayers doesn’t really concern itself with nostalgic fanfare and instead remains laser-focused on the story it’s telling, the one centered around Spike, Cordelia, Anya, Tara, and Indira. Slayers spends most of its time in Slayer Cordelia’s alternate reality, building out this world where Drusilla is the queen of all vampires, Tara has turned evil, and the Spike of this world is nothing but dust. It’s a story of loss and betrayal, grounded by the relationships forged in this series alone. And when it does throw longtime fans of the original series a bone, it’s done only in service of building out this world and these characters, whether they’re the versions we know and love or entirely new characters to fall in love with. 

Like some of the best stories told within the Buffyverse, it’s the grounded relationships between the characters that make these stories so captivating, not necessarily how they relate to the larger shared world. Dark Horse series Angel & Faith Season 9, for example, breaks away from the mainline Buffy run to tell a fairly self-contained story about Faith, Angel, their shared grief and self-loathing, and how two people longing for redemption are able to pull each other out of their own heads to truly help themselves and those around them. Or in its follow-up, Angel & Faith Season 10, which again focuses in on the relationship between Angel and Faith as they each struggle to find their place within the world, both together and apart. Even the BOOM! Studios Buffy comics are at their best when they’re not trying to emulate what came before, but rather using this sandbox to tell another meaningful story. Slayers lets those original stories told within Buffy the Vampire Slayer (and by extension Angel) remain untouched and encased in amber, moving its own story forward instead of constantly looking back at what came before.

With the creative team behind this series of co-writers Christopher Golden and Amber Benson, it’s no surprise that these lessons were applied here. Golden, a name likely unknown to casual Buffy fans, is a paragon within the tie-in media for the series. He has written novels (like the aforementioned “Wisdom of War”), guidebooks, comics, and more, all in service of expanding this world and its addictive and endless mythos. Benson is also no stranger to supplemental material in this universe. Her first foray was in the Dark Horse comics series Willow & Tara, which featured short stories of Willow and Tara saving Dawn from an enchanted wilderness, among other magical hijinks. As past scribes and players in this world, Golden and Benson engage in the inside baseball of certain moments, but always ensure that this series remains accessible and grounded. 

Even if this series isn’t technically canon, it’s a delight to revel in the alternate versions of these characters, with some being more familiar than others. Anya resembles her original series counterpart the most, and remains our emotional touchstone throughout Slayers, anchored by a truly magnificent Caulfield. On the other hand, Tara is the most dissimilar, and while it’s difficult to listen to her in such a twisted state (bolstered by a chilling performance from Benson), it only makes her return to the side of good that much sweeter. And even new Slayer Indira is a genuine delight, and encapsulates everything that Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the larger Buffyverse has always sought to capture: hope. 

Indira acts as the audience insert within the series, fangirling about Buffy and Faith, rattling off her knowledge at every turn, and never truly losing her hope or fight when the chips are down. Slayers engages with this fandom lovingly, paying homage to the decades of love and support through this heartfelt character. 

So while Slayers, at times, truly goes off the rails (I mean, who could have possibly guessed that Anyanka would swap bodies with a puppy?), it fully takes advantage of the audio medium to tell stories that would be difficult to tell on traditional TV. Anya, Anyanka, and Jasper merging into one being (accompanied by extremely unsettling squelching noises) would likely be a CGI monstrosity worth avoiding on TV or streaming. But in Slayers, it’s a tense twist that allows Anya and her demon counterpart to dive deep into their connection and come out the other side better for it. Slayers’ use of the medium rings similar to the various stories told in the pages of comics and novels over the years and simultaneously elevates the story using the medium, and the medium using the story. 

Whether it be a Buffy Classic exploring what old memories would have looked like with Dawn in post-Season 5’s rewritten reality (False Memories), Faith and Angel living and fighting together in London to bring Giles back from the dead (Angel & Faith Season 9), or Spike and friends traveling to an alternate dimension (Slayers), media tie-in material allows for the stories we saw unfold on our TV screens to continue to blossom and thrive, using different mediums to open up this world and these characters to new experiences and explorations. Buffy the Vampire Slayer the TV show may be dead, but the larger Buffyverse will live on, immortal and fostered by the fans who adore it and the creatives who refuse to stop expanding it. 

Slayers: A Buffyverse Story is available now 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.