Buffy the Vampire Slayer Reboot: Who is Whit Anderson?

News broke today that Warner Bros. is set to make a film reboot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. A few names of producers were dropped but the big surprise was the choice of a little known actress named Whit Anderson, as the film’s screenplay writer. The photo used in most of these news articles announcing Anderson as the new Buffy script writer looks like it was pulled from a Dove Body Wash advertising campaign. Now, Anderson doesn’t have any writing credits to her name according to popular site imdb.com, but she does have some acting credits.  “Through Walls” marks her first imdb.com credit, a short film where she played a mysterious art dealer.  She also voiced the part of Jill, in the short “Saw Rebirth”, which is a motion comic set in the Saw universe. Her largest claim to fame was a part in “Yes Man” as a Yes Patron. I’m assuming a Yes Patron is one of the screaming extras that you could see in the crowed during one of the motivational speeches given during that film. But will hardcore fans say Yes to Whit’s take on the Buffyverse?    

The problem is Anderson’s writing chops are going to be compared to those of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode writers such as Jane Espenson, David Fury, Marti Noxon and of course, the creator of the whedonverse – Joss Whedon. Most people say, no Joss Whedon equals no Buffy. Not so. Over the seven seasons, the show had many writers, the best of which were just mentioned, without them Buffy and the Scooby Gang would not have meant as much as they do to people. These writers really knew how to tell the Buffy story. They wrote the words and they were damn good. Unless Anderson is some sort of savant who can simultaneously please all the diehard Buffy fans, while recreating the whole mythos of the story, this film is going to be another Buffy Movie. Everyone remembers Buffy the Vampire Slayer the movie right? The vampires had those crazy ears and they would float around then Ben Affleck gets beaten in basketball by one of them - good times now, but total crap then. Anderson has big some shoes to fill and she must be aware of the fact that critics and fans alike will be unforgiving if her version of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” ever hits theaters.