Buffyverse canon

Introduction

Canon of a fictional universe comprises those stories, considered to be genuine (or "official"), and those events, characters, settings, etc. that are considered to have inarguable existence within the fictional universe. Usually items that are considered canon come from the original source of the fictional universe while non-canon material comes from adaptations or unofficial items. Generally, Expanded Universes are not considered canon, though there are exceptions which are considered near-canon. Using the religious analogy with the idea of a canon of Scripture, things which are not canon are considered "apocryphal". See Biblical canon.

The 'Buffyverse canon' is usually considered as including:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer 1992 film

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a 1992 comedy film starring Kristy Swanson as Buffy, and Donald Sutherland as Merrick. It was written by Joss Whedon and directed by Fran Rubel Kuzui. The film is not considered canon. In fact many of the details given in the film directly contradict canon. For example, in the film, vampires do not have 'bumpy' faces whilst feeding. According to established Buffyverse canon, vampires do have bumpy faces whilst feeding.

Books, comics, and video games

Main articles: Buffyverse chronology, Buffyverse comics, Buffyverse novels, and Buffy video games

There is a huge number of books and comics related to Buffy and Angel, almost all of which are not considered canon.

Canon

As mentioned above, there are a few graphic novels which are largely considered canon by fans:

Tales of the Slayers and Tales of the Vampires were written by writers of the Buffy and Angel television shows. Joss Whedon told a number of tales for these comic series. Other writers included Amber Benson, Ben Edlund, Jane Espenson, David Fury, Drew Goddard, Doug Petrie, and Rebecca Rand Kirshner.

Fray was an eight-part comic series written by Joss Whedon. The story is about a Vampire Slayer of the future named Melaka Fray and her discovery of what being a slayer means. In the Buffyverse it seems that a powerful scythe used by Buffy, will be found in centuries to come by Meleka. Joss Whedon has also written an Angel mini-series of comics, Long Night's Journey.

Several of the comics have been written by script-writers of Mutant Enemy Productions, and do not seem to contadict any information from the 'Buffyverse canon'. Some fans argue they might be considered canon. For example:

Doug Petrie wrote Ring of Fire, and 'Bad Dog' a mini story found in the graphic novel, Food Chain.
Jane Espenson has written a number of Buffy comics including the graphic novel Haunted, and the one-shots, Giles, Jonathon, and Reunion.
Spike & Dru story: ‘All's Fair’ is also sometimes considered canon, because the lead writer was James Marsters.

Non-canon

The Buffy video games, and the vast majority of books and comics are non-canon. However they have been licensed as official Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Angel merchandise. Furthermore Whedon or his office have to approve the overall concept of each book. This is to prevent the stories venturing too far from the original intentions of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel stories.

Christopher Golden talked of Whedon's involvement with these non-canonical works, "He has to approve everything. I should say, his office has to approve everything, so sometimes he gets more involved than others in doing those approvals" [1]. Jeff Mariotte, writer of Angel novels, also implied little input is given, only acceptance or rejection of general ideas: "in the world of licensing there is a difference between "approval" and "input," and I'm not sure what the legal relationship between Fox and Mutant Enemy is. My impression is that Fox is doing everything in its power to make sure Joss is happy with what we do, and I know that Joss is looking at everything and making comments or thumbs-up, thumbs-down on stuff[2].

Joss Whedon was asked in an interview in September 2005, by CHUD.com, "How much attention do you pay to the peripheral stuff, the novels and the comics?". Speaking of those he did not write himself, he responsed "Not very much. I just don’t have time. I give them a few guidelines of things they should stay away from, things that we’re going to be dealing with or things that would disrupt the canon or things that are just antithetical to what I believe in"[[3]. Elsewhere Whedon has pointed out that he has never entirely read a single Buffy novel, and is not involved in how they are written, or of their quality control.

Usually the authors and editors of these licensed materials try not to contradict information that has been established by canon. However many of the materials directly contradict it. For example according to Monster Island, Spike and Gunn meet in the Hyperion Hotel in Angel Season 3. Buffyverse canon later established that in fact Spike and Gunn meet in Wolfram and Hart LA offices in Angel Season 5. These contradictions tend to be the result of the story being written before it was contradicted by canon, or due to human error of the author(s)/editor(s).

Some of the licensed materials successfully avoid contradicting any canon. Three notable examples are: A series of short-story volumes, Tales of the Slayer expanding upon past slayer mythology. Also a number of graphic novels established a possible continuity for Buffy before she arrived in Sunnydale: The Origin, Viva Las Buffy, Slayer Interrupted, and Staked through the Heart. Short stories which take place between Buffy Season 1 and Season 2, in How I Survived My Summer Vacation.

References

[1] City of Angel Interview with Buffy/Angel book/comic writer, Christopher Golden.
[2] Interview with Angel book/comic writer, Jeff Mariotte, by Silver Bullet Comic Books website.
[3] Interview with Joss Whedon by CHUD.com.

Template:Whedon-stub