History WhatCouldHaveBeen / BuffyTheVampireSlayer

* Creator/JossWhedon's original concept that eventually evolved into Buffy was "Rhonda the Immortal Waitress".

* And also the proposed live-action ''Ripper'' spin-off, which would have been a ''ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}}''-esque dark supernatural thriller starring Creator/AnthonyStewartHead as Giles, initially intended to be set during his [[PutOnABus bus excursion]] in the sixth season. It was reportedly intended to have been made in the UK as a co-production with Creator/TheBBC. With hindsight it appears that the Beeb were never actually very interested as at much the same time they were considering the revival of [[Series/DoctorWho their own biggest fantasy property]]. There were still occasional fan rumors of the show being made for a couple of years after ''Buffy'' ended, but Head signing up for ''Series/{{Merlin|2008}}'' probably put the final nail in the coffin.
** ''Ripper'' would have introduced Giles's 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.
* There have also been repeated but never-elaborated fan rumors and hints in interviews about a possible "Faith and ghostly Spike WalkingTheEarth" spin-off that was abandoned when Creator/ElizaDushku signed up for ''Series/TruCalling'', after which Spike was added to the ''Series/{{Angel}}'' regular cast. Ironically, a "Faith and ''Angel'' WalkingTheEarth" comic spin-off eventually came out.

* When given their characters, James Marsters (Spike) and Juliet Landau (Drusilla) 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.

* The Oz-Veruca storyline in season four was supposed to last longer, but had to be cut short. Seth Green had been cast in a film whose production was suddenly pushed forward, requiring him to be written out sooner.

* Tucker from Season 3's "[[{{Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E20TheProm}} The Prom]]" was set to be a member of the Trio, but his actor wasn't available. So they created Andrew as Tucker's brother, with a RunningGag that [[RememberTheNewGuy no one remembers him]].

* In the original script for "Innocence" Buffy didn't have a bazooka. She had a [[TankGoodness tank]]!.

* In "Smashed", Willow and Amy get harassed by two homophobic men, and punish them by using magic to strip them to their underwear and make them dance in cages. In the original plans, they would have used magic to force the two men to kiss each other. Joss Whedon vetoed the idea because he did not want to portray people's sexual orientation as changing in an instant and he did not want to portray same-sex kissing as a punishment.
* "Killed by Death" was originally rather different: it involved some sort of hybrid senior home/orphanage, and it would seem like the kids were evil, except actually the seniors were, worshiping some kind of panther god or something.
* The Glove of Myhnegon from "Revelations" was originally supposed to be a falconer's glove that summoned some sort of demonic bird; Gwendolyn Post would try to control it, but it would kill her instead. Apparently the budget would have only allowed the bird to appear for about 30 seconds, and it became a joke around the studio that this particular script was unfilmable. Hence the change to a simpler ShockAndAwe power.
* At one point Joss toyed with the idea of putting vampires in out-of-style clothing, to show they were mentally still stuck in the time they died in. This would have been an interesting contrast to a fashion-conscious teenage hero, but Whedon soon realized it would be impractical in the long run. Buffy still picks a single vampire out in a crowd due to his outdated fashion sense in one early episode.

* In the original script for "Innocence" Buffy's didn't have a bazooka. She had a [[TankGoodness tank]]!.

* Buffy's bazooka in "Innocence" was originally a tank in the script.

* The Glove of Myhnegon from "Revelations" was originally supposed to be a falconer's glove that summoned some sort of demonic bird; Gwendolyn Post would try to control it, but it would kill her instead. Apparently the budget would have only allowed the bird to appear for about 30 seconds, and it became a joke around the studio that this particular script was unfilmable. Hence the change to a simpler ShockAndAwe power.

* In "Smashed", Willow and Amy get harassed by two homophobic men, and punish them by using magic to strip them to their underwear and make them dance in cages. In the original plans, they would have used magic to force the two men to kiss each other. Joss Whedon vetoed the idea because he did not want to portray people's sexual orientation as changing in an instant and he did not want to portray same-sex kissing as a punishment.

* Originally, Amy was going to be trapped as a rat indefinitely, but then Joss Whedon got a letter from a fan who pointed out rats only live for 3 years, and Amy had been in rat form for roughly three years. Amused, Joss arranged for Amy to return to human form. Amy's actor Elizabeth Anne Allen later thanked that fan for helping her return to the show.

* When given their characters, James Marsters (Spike) and Juliet Landau (Drusilla) 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 [[Theater/AStreetcarNamedDesire Blanche DuBois]] comparisons, though.

* Whedon intended for a while to kill Joyce at the end of Season 3, and by the time he changed his mind Kristine Sutherland had booked several other jobs for the following year, which is why she appears so little in Season 4.

* In "[[{{Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS4E1TheFreshman}} The Freshman]]", antagonist Sunday was originally going to be a Slayer who had been turned into a vampire, explaining how she was able to nearly effortlessly defeat Buffy the first time they fought. Instead, she simply become an unusually savvy and powerful vampire.

* The awesome [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnUvZP7-5LM "Buffy: The Animated Series"]], which was never produced. The original pilot was recycled into the Season 8 graphic novels.

* The entire first season was shot before the pilot had even aired, so some of the scenes were re-shot. Buffy's "it's my first day" speech to Giles was actually the ''last'' scene filmed, as they decided that Creator/SarahMichelleGellar's originally performance was too aggressive.

* 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 Geller.

* Creator/RyanReynolds was originally offered the role of Xander. He passed on it because of his own awful high school experiences. "I love that show and I loved Creator/JossWhedon," Reynolds told 'The Toronto Star' in 2008. "But my biggest concern was that I didn't want to play a guy in high school." * Angel was originally conceived as nothing more than a weird guy who occasionally showed up to give Buffy vague advice. There were several ideas for his true identity tossed around, including that he was an actual angel who needed to complete a certain number of good deeds before being allowed back into Heaven, before his being a vampire was decided on literally while writing the episode with the reveal. This explains the severe EarlyInstallmentWeirdness with him until that point, as he had to be written very vaguely to fit whatever the writers came up with.

* When given their characters, James Marsters (Spike) and Drusilla (Juliet Landau) 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 [[Theater/AStreetcarNamedDesire Blanche DuBois]] comparisons, though.

* Whedon wanted to put Eric Balfour [[DeadStarWalking in the opening credits]] for the first two episodes so that his death would be a surprise, but literally didn't have the money for two sets of credits. [[spoiler:He got to do it with Tara six years later]].

* Many characters stayed on longer than anticipated. Both Jenny Calendar and Joyce Summers (Buffy's mom) were supposed to die in the ''first season'', but Jenny survived until Season 2, and Joyce until Season 5. Jenny only died because the fan response to Oz was so positive, otherwise ''he'' would have been the one killed by Angelus. And had he not left, Oz would have died instead of Tara, triggering her Dark Willow phase. Mayor Wilkins was only set for 2 episodes. Anya was to only appear in "[[{{Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E9TheWish}} The Wish]]", and after that was only supposed to appear once again in "[[{{Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E16Doppelgangland}} Doppelgangland]]". Faith was originally signed on for only 5 episodes. Spike was to die at the end of "What's My Line?" but thankfully it was decided against (after so much hype of being trained by Angelus and killing two Slayers, Spike's death that quickly would have been cheap). Spike was thus planned to exit the show after his one Season 3 appearance, but was [[BreakoutCharacter brought on as a regular]] in Season 4 instead.
* Another contributing factor in Jenny dying was that Robia [=LaMorte=] became a Christian and was no longer comfortable playing the part.

* In "Conversations With Dead People", they considered having the First appear to Anya as Halfrek, or to Xander as Jesse, instead of to Willow as Cassie.

* The "appear to Xander as Jesse" part would have appeared whether or not Willow had hers (which was intended to be Tara, but Creator/AmberBenson was uncomfortable with how this would hurt the fans of both characters), but sadly Eric Balfour was unavailable to film the scenes. This incidentally made CWDP the only episode in the entire series to not feature Nicholas Brendan as Xander.

* Xander was supposed to be revealed as Glory's host, tying in to his declaring at the start of the season that he's "through being everyone's butt monkey" and ultimately expelling her himself.
* There was a plan for Andy Hallett to make a cameo in "[[{{Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS6E7OnceMoreWithFeeling}} Once More, With Feeling]]", and rumors exist of a crossover idea for "The Gift" with Team Angel coming to help.

* Oz was originally supposed to be killed by Angelus in "[[{{Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS2E17Passion}} Passion]]", but his character had a lot of potential, so the decision was made to bump off [[spoiler:Jenny]] instead. In turn, [[spoiler:Jenny]] was supposed to have died in an earlier episode, "Innocence", presumably in place of Uncle Enyos.
* If Creator/SethGreen hadn't left the show, everything from season 4 and up would likely have been very different. Oz would have remained with Willow, Xander would then have likely been the one to come out as gay considering Joss Whedon wanted either him or Willow to eventually be written as a homosexual, which also means that Anya would have either been written out or given a very different role than the one she had in the series while Tara may never have existed. Come season 6, it also would have meant that Oz would have wound up being the one killed by Warren.

* Creator/RyanReynolds was originally offered the role of Xander. He passed on it because of his own awful high school experiences. "I love that show and I loved Creator/JossWhedon," Reynolds told 'The Toronto Star' in 2008. "But my biggest concern was that I didn't want to play a guy in high school." * Angel was originally conceived as nothing more than a weird guy who occasionally showed up to give Buffy vague advice. There were several ideas for his true identity tossed around, including that he was an actual angel who needed to complete a certain number of good deeds before being allowed back into Heaven (which would have made him amusingly similar to Castiel from ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''), before his being a vampire was decided on literally while writing the episode with the reveal. This explains the severe EarlyInstallmentWeirdness with him until that point, as he had to be written very vaguely to fit whatever the writers came up with.

* 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.

* The one shot villain Sunday was originally supposed to be a Slayer who had been turned into a vampire. She instead became an ordinary vampire and it was unexplained why she is able to easily overpower Buffy.

* At the height of its popularity, an AnimatedAdaptation was considered. They had got the designs down and even made [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnUvZP7-5LM a promo]]. But no network was willing to buy it and it wound up dropped in the end. Though it did get a nod in the season 8 comic which somewhat lampshades the missed opportunity.

* They could not get Creator/AmberBenson's schedule to work with the plot, though, so it was scrapped. There was also talk of bringing Amber Benson back as one of the manifestations of the First Evil, but she refused because it would be too cruel to Willow's character and the fans. (There is, in fact, a script for "[[{{Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS7E7ConversationsWithDeadPeople}} Conversations With Dead People]]" that has Tara in place of Cassie talking to Willow, and it's exactly as cruel as you would expect.) The echoes of that plot could be felt in "Conversations With Dead People", which had Cassie appear and claim to be speaking for Tara.
* A shooting script for the Tara version of CWDP did the internet rounds back in the day, with truly heartbreaking Willow-First!Tara dialogue (Willow with Tara but unable to touch her -- think about it).

* Ripper would have introduced Giles's 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.

* Veruca was going to be a recurring character, but those plans fell through with the departure of Seth Green.

* Creator/NathanFillion auditioned for the role of Angel.
* Creator/RyanReynolds turned down the role of Xander.
* Angel was originally conceived as nothing more than a weird guy who occasionally showed up to give Buffy vague advice. There were several ideas for his true identity tossed around, including that he was an actual angel who needed to complete a certain number of good deeds before being allowed back into Heaven (which would have made him amusingly similar to Castiel from ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''), before his being a vampire was decided on literally while writing the episode with the reveal. This explains the severe EarlyInstallmentWeirdness with him until that point, as he had to be written very vaguely to fit whatever the writers came up with.

* Joss' original concept that eventually evolved into Buffy was "Rhonda the Immortal Waitress".

* 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?

* They could not get Amber Benson's schedule to work with the plot, though, so it was scrapped. There was also talk of bringing Amber Benson back as one of the manifestations of the First Evil, but she refused because it would be too cruel to Willow's character and the fans. (There is, in fact, a script for "Conversations with Dead People" that has Tara in place of Cassie talking to Willow, and it's exactly as cruel as you would expect.) The echoes of that plot could be felt in ''Conversations With Dead People'', which had Cassie appear and claim to be speaking for Tara.

* Sarah Michelle Gellar or Bianca Lawson (Kendra) could have been cast as Cordelia, which was the role they originally auditioned for. Both Charisma Carpenter and Elizabeth Anne Allen originally auditioned for Buffy. Sarah and Charisma's roles were switched, and the character of Amy was created for Elizabeth.

* Similarly, Danny Strong auditioned for ''Xander'' originally. He didn't get the part, obviously, but was later given the role of Jonathan, and his talent at portraying a hapless dupe of a SpearCarrier with HiddenDepths led to his becoming a recurring, popular character. What would have happened if he, not Nicholas Brendan, had won the role of Xander?
* There are two ways Xander could have been killed off. In the fifth season they considered revealing that he and not Ben was actually Glory's alter ego -- presumably that would have involved Glory's memory glitch spell affecting the ''audience'' all this time. They also considered having Caleb kill him in "Dirty Girls" so that the First would appear as him from then on, but decided the rest of the characters [[AngstWhatAngst would have insufficient grieving time.]]

* Many characters stayed on longer than anticipated. Both Jenny Calendar and Joyce Summers (Buffy's mom) were supposed to die in the ''first season'', but Jenny survived until Season 2, and Joyce until Season 5. Jenny only died because the fan response to Oz was so positive, otherwise ''he'' would have been the one killed by Angelus. And had he not left, Oz would have died instead of Tara, triggering her Dark Willow phase. Mayor Wilkins was only set for 2 episodes. Anya was to only appear in the episode "The Wish," and after that was only supposed to appear once again in "Dopplegangland". Faith was originally signed on for only 5 episodes. Spike was to die at the end of "What's My Line?" but thankfully it was decided against (after so much hype of being trained by Angelus and killing two Slayers, Spike's death that quickly would have been cheap). Spike was thus planned to exit the show after his one Season 3 appearance, but was [[BreakoutCharacter brought on as a regular]] in Season 4 instead.

* In "Grave", Buffy would have fought the dragon that escaped in "The Gift". It was changed to earth monsters because of the budget.

* And also the proposed live-action ''Ripper'' spin-off, which would have been a ''ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}}''-esque dark supernatural thriller starring Anthony Stewart Head as Giles, initially intended to be set during his [[PutOnABus bus excursion]] in the sixth season. It was reportedly intended to have been made in the UK as a co-production with Creator/TheBBC. With hindsight it appears that the Beeb were never actually very interested as at much the same time they were considering the revival of [[Series/DoctorWho their own biggest fantasy property]]. There were still occasional fan rumors of the show being made for a couple of years after ''Buffy'' ended, but Head signing up for ''Series/{{Merlin|2008}}'' probably put the final nail in the coffin.

* There have also been repeated but never-elaborated fan rumors and hints in interviews about a possible "Faith and ghostly Spike WalkingTheEarth" spin-off that was abandoned when Eliza Dushku signed up for ''Series/TruCalling'', after which Spike was added to the ''Series/{{Angel}}'' regular cast. Ironically, a "Faith and ''Angel'' WalkingTheEarth" comic spin-off eventually came out.

* There was a plan for Andy Hallett to make a cameo in "Once More With Feeling", and rumors exist of a crossover idea for 'The Gift' with Team Angel coming to help.
* Tucker Wells (from "The Prom") was going to be the leader of the Trio in Season 6, and the interim BigBad until he killed Tara and Dark Willow then killed him. This would have made particular sense, since in his one appearance he was rather callous about killing people and even darker than Warren (who was originally a weak-willed, somewhat amoral nerd with some HiddenDepths). Jonathan would've been the same pretty much, but Warren was going to be the passive follower (this suggests that Andrew's arc in Season 7 might have ended up being his). Since Brad Kane, Tucker's actor was unavailable to reprise the role, Warren was upped to BigBad via JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope & WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity, and Andrew was created to serve the weak-willed-follower role (as Tucker's brother who caused a chaotic incident absolutely nobody seems to remember).

* In "The Freshman", antagonist Sunday was originally going to be a Slayer who had been turned into a vampire, explaining how she was able to nearly effortlessly defeat Buffy the first time they fought. Instead, she simply become an unusually savvy and powerful vampire.
* One actress who was originally offered the role as the heroine was Natasha Lyonne, now the star of ''Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack''; she turned it down, and Whedon went with Geller.

* Darla was originally supposed to be killed in the end of "The Harvest" when Willow hurled holy water at her, but a more interesting plot for episode seven ("Angel") was needed so they kept her in the show.

** "Normal Again" was originally more of a RageAgainstTheAuthor episode, with the world of Sunnydale crumbling due to Joss Whedon suffering writers block.

* Oz was originally supposed to be killed by Angelus in "Passion", but his character had a lot of potential, so the decision was made to bump off [[spoiler:Jenny]] instead. In turn, [[spoiler:Jenny]] was supposed to have died in an earlier episode, "Innocence", presumably in place of Uncle Enyos.

* A more well known WCHB deals with Faith kissing Buffy on the forehead in "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 of the more well known WCHBs deals with Faith kissing Buffy on the forehead in "Enemies". The original script had Faith kissing her full on the lips.

* Angel was originally conceived as nothing more than a weird guy who occasionally showed up to give Buffy vague advice. There were several ideas for his true identity tossed around, including that he was an actual angel who needed to complete a certain number of good deeds before being allowed back into Heaven (which would have made him amusingly similar to Castiel from ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''), before his being a vampire was decided on literally while writing the episode with the reveal. This explains the severe EarlyInstallmentWeirdness with him until that point, as he had to be written very vaguely to fit whatever the writers came up with.

* When Season One was being produced, the Anointed One was planned as Season Two's BigBad. However the actor's growth made him portraying a theoretically ageless vampire unrealistic. If this had happened, however, we might not have met Spike and [[GrowingTheBeard the beard wouldn't have been grown.]]

* The Anointed One was going to be the BigBad of Season 2, but Andrew J. Ferchland's growth spurt made it impossible for him to pass as an eternal child, so Spike and Drusilla were created to take his place.

* They could not get Amber Benson's schedule to work with the plot, though, so it was scrapped. There was also talk of bringing Amber Benson back as one of the manifestations of the First Evil, but she refused because it would be too cruel to Willow's character and the fans. The echoes of that plot could be felt in ''Conversations With Dead People'', which had Cassie appear and claim to be speaking for Tara.