Reboot canceled likely too woke?

[Tome]

I don't think people have ever claimed that woke doesn't exist. The problem is every time something makes a political point or dares to go for diverse casting the woke label gets slapped on it, in a negative way. Its become a term hijacked by a certain group for political purposes, for clickbait or to spread hate. Its an over used term that's the problem. In the case of modern Trek, its the writing which is bad about a lot of it, its got nothing to do with it being too woke. Star Trek was always woke its just the term didn't exist back then. I've seen lots of crap from the 70s, 80s, 90s etc.. But people never got up in arms about it being too this or too that, they just called it bad.

I put quotation marks around "woke" not because it doesn't exist but because the word's meaning is so malleable in the hands of certain people. It means whatever they want it to mean at any point in time. Usually, it just means they don't like a piece of media or they disagree with its messaging. So, it's "woke"! "Woke" is bad, right?!

Be careful about calling Star Trek, and other older media, "woke" as you will usually get two counters to your claim. Either it will be the dumb "those shows/movies were definitely not woke... I wouldn't have liked them otherwise", or it will be "those had progressive messages, but they weren't woke"! For the latter group, they see "woke" as the extreme version of progressive ideology. So, they'd just argue that old Star Trek had tolerable levels of progressiveness.

As for your last point, yes. That is why I said that "woke" is the new "it sucks", except it's only applied to media that has some tenets of progressive ideology. If a show or a movie doesn't have any such elements (which is rare, because those anti-"woke" peeps will look for any crumb of potential "wokeness"), then it will just be bad and won't be obsessed about.

The original novel had those themes already. The newer version just applied them to something more recent. Happens all the time.

Pretty much. It's just a dystopian story, sort of like 1984, except while Orwell's story is a critique of political totalitarianism and the death of objective truth, Atwood's story is more of a critique of religious fundamentalism and the death of bodily autonomy for women.

Getting back to the Buffy cancellation. It will remain a mystery why it was cancelled. SMG said it was because of one guy who hadn’t seen the original show made the call, she's got no reason to make that up so I for one believe her. It is truly baffling when you think of some of the random stuff that does get greenlite some of it much more obscure than Buffy. I mean who asked for 5 spinoffs from Yellowstone? 😆

Don't bring back the pain, Trick! 🙁 We already got screwed back then by the exec who canceled Angel. To think another individual destroyed the hope of us fans seeing Buffy on the small screen again is vile.

 

[thetopher]

I don't think people have ever claimed that woke doesn't exist.

Of course they have. Plenty of people (some of whom may be on these very boards) think woke is just a made-up criticism/pejorative used by the right for lazy critique.

Sometimes that can be true and people should use their own judgement or a trusted source (not a "grifter") but the fact is there is an incredible amount of left-wing bigoted identity politics in media these days. We've had a decade of the trend so far and, although its showing up less often, is still ruining IP's (and the occasional gaming studio) as of 2026.

 

[AlphaFoxtrot]

Baby Boomers are the only people who really watch television anymore, and the Boomer's first love was the Western. It's strangely poetic.

 

[Andrew2005]

Buffy was quite woke already

Post automatically merged: Today at 11:30 AM

Although I do think this project was why Slayers wound up being cancelled rather than getting a second season, which it probably would have, the idea that this was an IP grab seems more than a little bizarre. Who are they grabbing the IP from? Themselves? It's not like Slayers wasn't a licensed project given the go ahead by the IP owners. The same owners who gave the go ahead to this.

It was Joss Whedon who greenlit Slayers. Amber Benson even went to him to get permission

Post automatically merged: Today at 11:34 AM

Look, Firefly was very well received back in the aughts. Dollhouse is a little weird, but it has its friends. Agents is ideally how Joss should be doing shows these days, putting his name on it, writing and directing the pilot, then passing it on to others. Like "Amazing Stories," only good.

The Nevers is a different story.

Joss Whedon was quite involved with AoS in and out of the writers room pitching episodes for the sake of keeping of keeping the show tied to the MCU.

Regarding The Nevers, he was very involved but stepped back giving Jane Espenson the showrunner rol

 

[wolfheart]

Buffy was quite woke already

Yep it was!

 

[Andrew2005]

Season 7 of Buffy gave me an idea what a reboot would be like if it came back now, which after the sad deaths of Nicholas, Anthony and Michelle, would struggle to gain cameo spots for old stars. The focus on the Potentials, the end message, the glossier look, and a certain inconsistency in character motivations - plot seemed to drive the characters as much as the characters drove the plot, particularly Giles and Willow - made it seem more 'modern' than the other seasons.

Don't you you think if Buffy came back today and it was being run by Joss Whedon he wouldn't have ways to explain the lack of those characters? Its not like he hasn't done it before.