History WhatCouldHaveBeen / BuffyTheVampireSlayer

* Search "Buffy Unaired Pilot" on Website/YouTube to see a whole episode of ''What Could Have Beens'' answering questions like "What if Willow was fat?"

** For her part, Benson has said she was never about any of the above,(which she may have been open to, having been heartbroken about her character's death) and was only invited back to play the First.

** ''Ripper'' would have introduced Giles' eternally young great aunts Lavinia and Sophie, played by Anthony Head's daughters Emily and Daisy. They later appeared in the ''Angel & Faith'' comic series as recurring characters.

* When given their characters, Creator/JamesMarsters and Creator/JulietLandau were told they could use either a British or American accent. Marsters actually considered giving Spike a [[UsefulNotes/AmericanAccents Southern accent]], but Landau says that, given the "Sid and Nancy" vibe of their characters, Drusilla needed to be a Cockney. She admits that a Southern accent would have added interesting [[Theatre/AStreetcarNamedDesire Blanche DuBois]] comparisons, though. Marsters originally auditioned for the role of Spike using a [[CorruptHick Texan accent]]. He and the writers eventually decided that this was not a good fit, and so instead of a cowboy, Spike became a limey. Spike actually uses this Texan accent in Season #4 when he's attempting to convince people that he's an old friend of Xander's. It's hilarious.

* Creator/TimMinear was behind an idea for a spinoff in 2003 featuring Faith. He pitched as "Faith meets ''Series/KungFu''" and it would have seen her WalkingTheEarth on her motorcycle trying to find her place in the world and that Spike would appear. This was abandoned when Creator/ElizaDushku starred in ''Series/TruCalling'' and Spike joined the last season of ''Angel''. Ideas intended for the spin-off were later borrowed in small part by Brian K. Vaughan for his "No Future for You" arc in the Season Eight comics.

* A more well known WCHB deals with Faith kissing Buffy on the forehead in "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E17Enemies Enemies]]". [[http://www.buffyworld.com/buffy/scripts/051_scri.html The original script had Faith kissing her full on the lips.]] FoeYay going all the way.

* One actress who was originally offered the role as the heroine was Creator/NatashaLyonne, now the star of ''Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack''; she turned it down, and Whedon went with Gellar.
* Amongst those who auditioned for Buffy were Creator/KatieHolmes and Creator/SelmaBlair.

* From the very beginning, Joss Whedon planned to reveal that one of the main characters was gay. However, until Season 4 he had not decided as to whether this would be Willow or Xander, and subtle clues (''extremely'' subtle) were placed for both characters in case his plans were able to see light. Ultimately, he decided to pick Willow instead of Xander. The apparent {{Foreshadowing}} with vampire Willow being a DepravedBisexual was not one of these - as Joss was leaning more towards Xander being the gay one until Amber Benson's chemistry with Alyson Hannigan proved so good.
* Despite some popular belief, Tara was not necessarily introduced just as a {{Love Interest|s}}[=/=]ClosetKey for Willow (though the timing is impeccable) - she was created because Willow was getting too powerful as a witch and outgrowing her initial "cuteness", so the writers realised that using her to make the villains sinister (and get captured/kidnapped) was no longer plausible. Thus, Tara was created to replace her in this role as TheWoobie, as well as to explore Willow's "addiction storyline" that led to Dark Willow in Season 6 - Tara became Willow's {{Love Interest|s}} because Alyson Hannigan and Amber Benson had wonderful on-screen chemistry and the writers seized the opportunity presented to them. This leads into another WCHB - if Oz hadn't been written out of the show, would Willow and Tara have been written as lovers (before or after Oz's death led to the Dark Willow arc), or would they have been straight and Xander turned out gay/bi? Some combination of the aforementioned? Who can say for certain?

* The series came very close to getting an animated series, with designs of the characters and even a concept reel which you can find [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnUvZP7-5LM here]]. However when trying shop it around to networks, none of them were interested in producing it as, since the series deals with killing monsters, was found too inappropriate for kids (This was around the days when cartoons were still on network blocks on public TV and thus MoralGuardians and the FCC were keeping a watch on kid programing). Ultimately the series was shelved and buried. Though did get a nice nod in the season eight comic 12th issue, "After These Messages... We'll Be Right Back" which explores the animated series for a bit.