BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER Star James Marsters Recalls a Messed Up Interaction with Joss Whedon Over Spike's Popularity

For anyone who enjoyed watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, you know that James Marsters' Spike was one of the most popular characters. The fans loved Spike! You know who apparently wasn’t a fan? Buffy creator and showrunner Joss Whedon.

During a decent conversation with Michael Rosenbaum on his podcast, Inside Of You With Michael Rosenbaum, Marsters talked about Spike's transformation from villain to love interest and explained how his character contradicted Whedon's vision of vampires and his character.

“Joss felt that vampires should be ugly, they should be very quickly overcome, and they were not supposed to be sexy. He said, 'I don't like that Anne Rice crap.' He got talked into one romantic interest vampire - that was Angel - it wasn't his idea. That was the only one, that was the exception.”

The popularity of the character Spike led to a crazy and messed up interaction with Whedon. Masters said:

"I came along and I wasn’t designed to be a romantic character, but then the audience reacted that way to it. And I remember he backed me up against a wall one day, and he was just like, ‘I don’t care how popular you are, kid, you’re dead. You hear me? Dead. Dead!’ And I was just like, ‘Uh, you know, it’s your football, man. OK.’"

When asked if Whedon was just joking, Marsters said "No, hell no," and he also added that Whedon never apologized because he "was angry at the situation."

Wow! That’s an interesting story. That would have been really weird and uncomfortable. What a weird way to react to the popularity of a character! It wasn’t even Marsters’ fault! He just played the character that Whedon cast him to play!

Whedon has yet to say anything about the accusations being made against him. I wonder if he still plans on doing his virtual panel for Comic-Con@Home after all this.