BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER's Amber Benson on Cordelia Being The Slayer In SLAYERS: A BUFFYVERSE STORY

Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans seem to be pretty excited about the upcoming Audible Original series, Slayers: A Buffyverse Story, which brings back several of the original show’s stars. Former cast member Amber Benson co-wrote the nine-episode series with Christopher Golden. Benson played Tara in the original series and she reprises her role in Slayers. As for Golden, he wrote several Buffy novels.

The Slayers story is set 20 years after the events of the original series and it “begins as Spike has gone deep undercover in Los Angeles, convincing the forces of darkness that he’s back to his evil ways. But when his cover is compromised by 16-year-old Indira Nunnally (Hayes), Spike finds himself on baby-slayer-sitting duty once more. While he attempts to track down a watcher for his eager new protégé, their paths collide with the veteran Slayer of a parallel reality where Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) never existed, and Cordelia Chase (Charisma Carpenter) is the one-and-only Slayer. And Cordelia needs Spike’s help with a classic big bad terrorizing her world… his old flame, Drusilla (Landau).”

This is an interesting direction that they’re taking the story with Cordelia as the Slayer, and in a recent interview with CB, Benson and Golden talked about why they took the story in that direction. Benson explained:

“For me, the biggest reason to do Slayers with Chris was to see Cordelia the Vampire Slayer come to life. I worked with Charisma on a film a few years ago, and we had this scene. She and I had never worked together before, but we were in this scene playing this very emotional moment, and it was transcendent, and I was like, "Oh my God, she's so good. I really want to see her be a vampire slayer." I think the seeds of that were sown during that scene. To be able to work with Chris and Audible on this and bring that to life was really important for me.”

Golden shared his perspective, saying:

“As soon as it came up and we started talking about it, it was a checklist populating itself in my head of things that I'd wished for, that I wanted to see happen, but then also this explosion of what ifs and every conversation we had brought out more of that and more of that and more of that and the best thing about it was to be able to make it a true ensemble story so that we could give all of these amazing cast members meat to chew, something to really chew on and focus them and give them emotional beats and arcs that they never had before. That's been such a pleasure and, of course, any opportunity to work with Amber is always such a pleasure. We just have such a good time together.”

When talking about working with Charisma again, and what she was looking to bring to the character, Benson said:

“Charisma and I were talking, and she was saying how it was very hard for her to put that together in her mind. In fact, she came to me and Chris when we were recording. She's like, ‘Okay, am I doing this right because here's this world-weary slayer, and then there's the snark, and how do I balance...’ And Chris was like, ‘Oh no, you nailed it. You don't have to worry. You've got this. Get out of your head. You're already doing it.’"

Golden went on to explain that this version of Cordelia is “more like Charisma than the original version of Cordelia for sure. It has more of her in it, I think.” Benson added that while people see Charisma as being funny and snarky, there’s also “a real depth and thoughtfulness to her.” Golden then went on to talk about how the characters have changed over the past 20 years, and how they aren’t the same as they used to be:

“Yeah, it's crazy. The interesting thing, I would say, is that even the characters who exist in the Buffyverse that we know are different because it's 10-12 years later and they have changed since the end of the show. The Giles that you meet is the familiar Giles, but he's been changed by the passage of time. The Spike that you meet is the Spike that you knew, but he has been significantly changed by the passage of time. Going into the other world, it's the same thought process. You are looking at these characters, you look at Tara and say, what was her life like in this new version? What did she not experience that the one we knew experienced? And what did she experience? And you start to put together who that character is and who they're going to be. I think one of the best helps for doing that was having Indira as a new character, and Laya DeLeon Hayes is phenomenal in that role.”

The cast for Slayers also includes James Marsters (Spike), Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia), Anthony Stewart Head (Giles), Amber Benson (Tara), Juliet Landau (Drusilla), and Emma Caulfield Ford (Anya). Danny Strong, as well as newcomer Laya DeLeon Hayes are also in the series.

Marsters previously said in a statement: “I’m ecstatic to be back with my dear friends for this next chapter in the Buffyverse, as we take listeners on a familiar but unexpected journey chock full of horror, passion and mischief. I’m excited for old and new fans to experience this beloved world of vampire slaying like never before, brought to life through immersive audio storytelling.”

Slayers: A Buffyverse Story premieres October 12, 2023.