"They're still working" on a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot, reveals...Dolly Parton, obviously

Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a big cult hit show in the '90s and early '00s, and a big influence on series like The Vampire Diaries, Charmed and the CW aesthetic in general. The show, about a SoCal teenager picked as the unlikely inheritor of a nightly, one-woman war against evil, has lived on after its 2003 series finale in the forms of comic books and audio adventures, but there's never been a proper reboot, despite a couple of failed attempts. But apparently that's still in the works, according to someone in the know: Dolly Parton.

"They're still working on that," Parton told Business Insider. "They're thinking about bringing it back and revamping it."

You may be asking yourself why Parton, a living country music legend and movie star, would be weighing in on the prospect of a Buffy reboot. Well, she was a producer on both the TV series and the original 1992 movie starring Kristy Swanson through her Sandollar Productions company. Sandollar also coproduced the Buffy spinoff show Angel starring David Boreanaz.

That said, if you're having visions of Parton on set in a five-story blonde wig giving notes on proper staking etiquette, it wasn't quite like that. "A lot of my work was done just conversing back and forth with the business people there," Parton said. "I have to give more people more credit on 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' than me. A lot of people did so much sweat on that. That little show did great."

The bulk of that sweat was given by cast members like Sarah Michelle Gellar and producers like Joss Whedon, who went on to direct the first two Avengers movies before getting canceled for inappropriate behavior and effectively exiled from Hollywood. As for Parton's involvement, it's another example of her turning up in the most unexpected places to delight and surprise. Just to brighten your Monday, here she is singing "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin, because why not?

So far as celebrities having their names attached to unexpected projects goes, it happens more than you'd think. Lucille Ball's production company was involved in producing the original Star Trek show, for instance.

That said, these kinds of credits are often more of a formality, a side effect of all the wrangling lawyers have to do around intellectual property rights. I'm reminded of a recent story told by Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and Dan Weiss, two of the most powerful producers working in Hollywood today. They were offered producing credits on HBO's Game of Thrones prequel show House of the Dragon, and made headlines because they took the unexpected step of turning them down. “HBO was kind of confused,” Benioff remembered. “I remember their lawyer saying, ‘But it’s just money, we’re just going to pay you.’”

By the sound of it, Parton really was somewhat involved in the Buffy TV show, but my bet is that she was offered the chance mostly because her production company had helped make the original 1992 movie, and credits have a way of getting passed on from one project to another.

But even if Parton's involvement was nominal, it doesn't hurt to have her associated with your IP, since she's one of the most universally beloved public figures alive today. If I really wanted to get a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot off the ground, I'd try to get Dolly Parton to talk about it every chance she gets.

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