‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’: James Marsters Says He Would Play Spike Again Under 1 Condition
The ’90s had a ton of good things about it, but one of the best parts of the decade was the quality TV geared towards people in their teens and twenties. One of the standout series was Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a series based on the 1992 film name of the same name.
Starring Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers, the Sunnydale based series follows Buffy, a teen girl trying to juggle the regular duties of a teenager, school work, friends, boys, and cheerleading, along with her nightlife of slaying vampires.
Of course, because this was a teen drama, Buffy ended up falling for two vampires over the series, the evil vampire turned good, Angel (David Boreanaz) and the diabolical Spike (James Marsters). Whedon has been talking about rebooting the series for some time, and Marsters says he’s down to embody his character once again under one condition.
James Marsters wanted to give Spike a Southern accent
Marsters’ Spike was known for his platinum blonde hair and English accent, even though Marsters is American. Originally, the actor wanted to give Spike a Southern accent. “I had done a play where I used like a Louisiana accent, like deep on south, way on down Louisiana like that,” revealed on Michael Rosenbaum’s Inside of You podcast. However, Whedon had other plans for the character. Marsters explained,
Joss Whedon wanted an English punk rock vampire. It’s not surprising that he said, ‘No, that other accent is very cute but I want what I want.’
Josh Whedon wanted to kill off James Marsters’ character Spike immediately
Spike first appeared in Season 2 of the series, he was well known to Buffy because he had killed two Slayers previously. He was devious, diabolical, and dangerous and he was supposed to be killed off pretty early on. However, Marsters embodied the character so well that he became a fan favorite immediately. Whedon was disgusted by this.
“He was angry at the situation I think,” Marsters revealed. “Why should he? If it had been me in his shoes, I’d have killed me off immediately. He resented a situation where he had to deal with another romantic vampire when his theme was that vampires are the problems you have to get over in high school, in season 2 when he’s trying to hold onto a really good theme and it’s getting corrupted by a surprise character.”
Whedon eventually got over it with Marsters becoming a series regular in Season 4 and appearing on the Buffy spinoff Angel.
James Marsters would play Spike again under 1 condition
Following Angel’s cancelation, Whedon considered pitching a Spike spinoff, but that never came to fruition. Now, he’s talking about rebooting the series with a Black actor playing Buffy. It appears that Marsters would be down to embody Spike again, but it would have to be sooner rather than later.
“I told Joss, whether it’s one line or 50, I’d come, no matter where I was in the world,” Marsters explained. “But if he wanted to film me doing Spike, he had seven years, because I’m aging and Spike’s a vampire, and I don’t want to play an aged Spike. If there was a way, or if Spike was always in vampire face. Then that might work.”
