Post by Riff on May 19, 2004 16:30:30 GMT -5
At this stage, I haven’t actually seen the final episode – I’ve seen some spoilers (what can I say? – looking at spoilers was probably better than getting beta blockers). Spoilers can be wrong or incomplete, though, so what I’m about to write might not apply. For example, I’d heard ATS ended with an impossible fight against the SPs and a cliff-hanger, but Joss has just said in Entertainment Weekly that he won’t have a cliff-hanger ending: “I wouldn’t do that. That’s a crappy thing to do.” We’ll see.
First of all, it looks very much as if most of the events in Not Fade Away were what Joss and ME always intended for this season’s finale.
Jeffrey Bell has said, “things won’t change too much from what we were planning anyway. We’ve been building toward the same thing, and now we’ll just do it with a little more certainty.” (Angel Magazine)
James Masters recently said, “Oh yeah. This was [going to be] the ending of the season, prior to us getting cancelled. It was gonna be a great lead-in to next season. Now, it’s serving as the end of the series.” (Tvguide.com)
However, it sounds like the planned season endgame – the Circle of the Black Thorn, the cliff-hanger of the final battle – has been made more gruelling due to the cancellation. Joss says, “Oh yeah, baby. The pain that I felt when they cancelled the show, I’m going to share.” (Thestar.com) Thank you for that, Joss. We love you.
So – Season 6.
Indications are that all the cast were wanted for season 6. Apparently they were all contracted for the next two years.
The following information, gathered from a variety of sources, articles, interviews etc. is on slayerverse.de:
•The first few episodes would take place in another dimension. The FG would travel there either after or during the big fight. There’s no more information than that, but it makes sense. They would have to get out of that battle somehow.
•Oz and Willow should have returned this season, and would maybe be there for season 6 too. Presumably this would be in a guest-star capacity.
•Somehow, Fred and Illyria would have been spilt and Amy Acker would have played both parts on ATS.
I’m not sure if slayerverse.de is reliable. But even if it isn’t, I have some independent confirmation of the stuff about Fred and Illyria.
You may have already heard that Joss told Amy about the season finale and his plans for next season. In the April edition of dreamwatch she reveals that he had “just told me his whole plan for next year” before hearing about the cancellation. The interview continues as follows:
dreamwatch: What exactly did Joss tell you about season six?
AA: As I’m playing this new character now, it was just some stuff that he was going to do with her and bringing Fred back and getting to work with both characters.
(dreamwatch No.115 April 2004, page 47) Amy has repeated this in other interviews, such as one in the May edition of Cult Times.
Probably this wouldn’t involve something as sudden as Dark Willow melting away in Xander’s arms. I imagine that we would see Illyria, influenced from within, act as Fred more and more frequently and accurately over the season until the genuine article was before us and it was impossible to deny that Fred had indeed returned. Presumably the characters would be alter egos in the same body.
Ilyria’s unaccountable “human” behaviour and emotions, her ties to Wes and others, her desire to be Fred – things which she does not really understand, which weren’t supposed to be part of her resurrection at all – are almost certainly a symptom of this gradual emergence. If you saw something ambiguous in Not Fade Away that seemed to blur the boundaries between Illyria and Fred, think of what it may have foreshadowed. It is a fitting revenge: the purity of Illyria the Old One, hater of humanity, is corrupted because Fred has infected her. That’s our Winifred Burkle. She’s a trooper.
All the talk of “she’s gone and she’s not coming back” in Shells (filmed before the cancellation, remember) seems to have been a smokescreen, after all. She isn’t coming back? They’ve been playing us, because the intention obviously was to bring her back in some way. Fred’s okay – she’s just waiting for Season 6.
And how much do you hate the WB now? The entire cast returning; the fight won or averted at the 11th hour; Willow and Oz (maybe); and Fred!
But we may well indeed see some or all of this come to pass. Joss has just started talking about those TV movies again, starting next year, perhaps. Each one would visit a different corner of the Buffyverse. (Entertainment Weekly) And possibly Erinland.
First of all, it looks very much as if most of the events in Not Fade Away were what Joss and ME always intended for this season’s finale.
Jeffrey Bell has said, “things won’t change too much from what we were planning anyway. We’ve been building toward the same thing, and now we’ll just do it with a little more certainty.” (Angel Magazine)
James Masters recently said, “Oh yeah. This was [going to be] the ending of the season, prior to us getting cancelled. It was gonna be a great lead-in to next season. Now, it’s serving as the end of the series.” (Tvguide.com)
However, it sounds like the planned season endgame – the Circle of the Black Thorn, the cliff-hanger of the final battle – has been made more gruelling due to the cancellation. Joss says, “Oh yeah, baby. The pain that I felt when they cancelled the show, I’m going to share.” (Thestar.com) Thank you for that, Joss. We love you.
So – Season 6.
Indications are that all the cast were wanted for season 6. Apparently they were all contracted for the next two years.
The following information, gathered from a variety of sources, articles, interviews etc. is on slayerverse.de:
•The first few episodes would take place in another dimension. The FG would travel there either after or during the big fight. There’s no more information than that, but it makes sense. They would have to get out of that battle somehow.
•Oz and Willow should have returned this season, and would maybe be there for season 6 too. Presumably this would be in a guest-star capacity.
•Somehow, Fred and Illyria would have been spilt and Amy Acker would have played both parts on ATS.
I’m not sure if slayerverse.de is reliable. But even if it isn’t, I have some independent confirmation of the stuff about Fred and Illyria.
You may have already heard that Joss told Amy about the season finale and his plans for next season. In the April edition of dreamwatch she reveals that he had “just told me his whole plan for next year” before hearing about the cancellation. The interview continues as follows:
dreamwatch: What exactly did Joss tell you about season six?
AA: As I’m playing this new character now, it was just some stuff that he was going to do with her and bringing Fred back and getting to work with both characters.
(dreamwatch No.115 April 2004, page 47) Amy has repeated this in other interviews, such as one in the May edition of Cult Times.
Probably this wouldn’t involve something as sudden as Dark Willow melting away in Xander’s arms. I imagine that we would see Illyria, influenced from within, act as Fred more and more frequently and accurately over the season until the genuine article was before us and it was impossible to deny that Fred had indeed returned. Presumably the characters would be alter egos in the same body.
Ilyria’s unaccountable “human” behaviour and emotions, her ties to Wes and others, her desire to be Fred – things which she does not really understand, which weren’t supposed to be part of her resurrection at all – are almost certainly a symptom of this gradual emergence. If you saw something ambiguous in Not Fade Away that seemed to blur the boundaries between Illyria and Fred, think of what it may have foreshadowed. It is a fitting revenge: the purity of Illyria the Old One, hater of humanity, is corrupted because Fred has infected her. That’s our Winifred Burkle. She’s a trooper.
All the talk of “she’s gone and she’s not coming back” in Shells (filmed before the cancellation, remember) seems to have been a smokescreen, after all. She isn’t coming back? They’ve been playing us, because the intention obviously was to bring her back in some way. Fred’s okay – she’s just waiting for Season 6.
And how much do you hate the WB now? The entire cast returning; the fight won or averted at the 11th hour; Willow and Oz (maybe); and Fred!
But we may well indeed see some or all of this come to pass. Joss has just started talking about those TV movies again, starting next year, perhaps. Each one would visit a different corner of the Buffyverse. (Entertainment Weekly) And possibly Erinland.
