I'd like a tv adaptation of Fray

burrunjor

burrunjor

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I'm sure most of you have heard of Fray. Its a comic book set in the Buffyverse 200 years in the future. Its about a Vampire slayer being called for the first time in over a century, a petty, street hoodlum named Fray, whose brother Harth is the Vampire king of Manhattan.

It was a great series and IMO a tv adaptation would be excellent for the following reasons.

1/ It has an unusual setting for a Vampire story. How many Vampire stories do you see that are set in the future, in a time of mutants, ray guns and hover cars? Its completely new ground for Vampire fiction in general.

2/ Fray is a slightly more unusual and interesting female lead. She's very ruthless, a lot more hard around the edges, and quite cynical. She'd definitely be a lot more of a wild card than Buffy or even Angel.

3/ IMO Fray could help expand the Buffyverse. As much as I like Buffy as a character, I think that you could do more series and stories in her universe and Fray, being the third series would kind of open the door for that. As it is now, its just Buffy and its spin off. A third series that's not really connected to the original would expand the universe IMO.

4/ I'd love to see Dana Delorenzo play Fray. For those who haven't heard of her, Dana is a brilliant young actress who is best known for playing Kelly in Ash Vs Evil Dead. She has the right look and attitude for Fray. Here's what she looks like Dana Delorenzo. She practically looks like a real life Fray already! Here she is as Kelly in action fighting a pervy Demon puppet. Ash vs Evil Dead

For Harth I think Robbie Kay would be amazing. He played an evil version of Peter Pan in Once Upon A Time. I won't spoil anything about the Peter Pan story arc if you haven't seen it because its amazing (watch Once Upon A Time for that arc alone its worth it.) His evil version of Peter Pan is like Harth in that both are boyish looking, tyrannical leaders of a group of frightening supernatural creatures. Here he is as Pan. He'd be a brilliant enemy for Dana. Robbie Kay as Peter Pan

Personally I'd much rather they made this than a Buffy reboot. I'll judge a Buffy reboot when I see it of course, but really I don't think you can improve on the original. Instead I'd love to see Fray get her chance. If done right her series could run as long as Angel. What do you think?
 
With their nonsensical attitude to names, if they called it "Fray", people may think it's about low-quality clothes.

Something set in the future is going to be expensive. Outdoor urban scenes would be either CGI or ridiculously expensive. You are looking at "The Fifth Element" setting on a television budget.
 
Would the TV show happen before or after the events of season 12? If before it would be a little... prequely, if after, it would be a much different show than what the comics presented.
 
It's an interesting thought but Fray's world no longer exists in a form that necessitates her cynicism (not does Harth for that matter). If S12 is to be believed (and about this, I'm way more cynical than Fray could ever be), it's a garden city utopia (think Langs' Metropolis without the labouring class) in which Slayers abound - and Utopias can be incredibly boring. IMO, the only way it would work is if the snippet we see of the future in S12 is only that - a fragment of the truth. If the full truth is that discord still exists, I could reconcile it with S12 and I'd be more interested in a spin-off of Fray than I am in a remake of Buffy. I kinda like Fray.
 
Ethan Reigns said:
With their nonsensical attitude to names, if they called it "Fray", people may think it's about low-quality clothes.
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I like Fray: Future Slayer. Or even Melaka Fray: Future Slayer.

Something set in the future is going to be expensive. Outdoor urban scenes would be either CGI or ridiculously expensive. You are looking at "The Fifth Element" setting on a television budget.
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I disagree. Fray takes places in the ultra poor sections of the city. I think it would definitely require a lot of CGI, but I can't imagine it would come anywhere close to something like Altered Carbon. I think a budget similar to Firefly or SHIELD would work, but with Whedon/Buffy's name attached, I doubt it would be too hard to find a network that would be willing to throw a bunch of money at it.
 
nightshade said:
Why can't they make Fray, ignoring all the s8 onwards comics?
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Yeah I was thinking just ignore the Season 8 comics.

I'm not too particularly enamoured of them TBH, but even without that I'd much rather just go for a full remake of Fray. I agree with the Ferg that as it takes place in more suburban settings then it might not need that high a budget. I see it as more Bladerunner rather than Futurama.
 
I still havent had the chance to read Fray, so I would be totally keen for this idea!
 
Any Buffy spinoff probably requires a "Buffy window," where a successful series is required to argue we need more teenage girls fighting monsters. Having said that, that's basically Dark Angel, which was moderately successful and is the primary reason anyone cares about Jessica Alba. Well, maybe tea. But it sure as heck wasn't "idle hands."
 
Can we have Dark Willow and Harmony reminiscing? Otherwise, I'm not on board. I found the original Fray comic underwhelming to say the least.
 
Ethan Reigns said:
Something set in the future is going to be expensive. Outdoor urban scenes would be either CGI or ridiculously expensive.
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The Ferg said:
Fray takes places in the ultra poor sections of the city. I think it would definitely require a lot of CGI,
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Not necessarily. If you limit the scenes to close shots, without a whole lot of wide landscape scenes, CGI wouldn't be that big a necessity. Most large studios have back lot sets that would work well without very much modification, and just about every nig city has areas that are set for future demolition. Add to that, vampires stay in relatively dark places, so, once again, wide landscape scenes wouldn't be an issue. If you think about it, neither "Buffy" nor "Angel" had a whole lot of big elaborate sets, except for the Magic Shop, the Hyperion Hotel lobby, and Wolfram & Hart office area. "Fray" could be done pretty much the same way.
 
AlphaFoxtrot said:
Any Buffy spinoff probably requires a "Buffy window," where a successful series is required to argue we need more teenage girls fighting monsters. Having said that, that's basically Dark Angel, which was moderately successful and is the primary reason anyone cares about Jessica Alba. Well, maybe tea. But it sure as heck wasn't "idle hands."
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Well I was thinking about having Willow still be alive hundreds of years in the future. You could have it that her magic has made her age much more slowly than a normal woman. She could be a Giles type mentor to Fray (you'd have to have her depowered a little bit, which you could explain as being as a result of the supernatural being banished, which is part of Fray's backstory, but maybe Willow had enough magic to keep herself young and reactivate the Slayer line in case the Demons ever came back?) You could have Willow however due to her dark past maybe be a little bit more untrustworthy and dangerous than Giles.

I wouldn't have her go evil however. In Fray Willow does go evil in the future, but I don't think people would like that on tv. Would be kind of a sad end for Willow.

It could be interesting to see Willow as an older, more mature, stronger character. Think of how weird it would be for people who grow up with Fray to go back and watch Buffy and see Willow in the first episodes as a vulnerable young girl scared of Vampires.
 
burrunjor said:
I wouldn't have her go evil however. In Fray Willow does go evil in the future, but I don't think people would like that on tv. Would be kind of a sad end for Willow.
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She's not really evil, is she? She's been protecting the world by herself for hundreds of years, waiting for Fray.
 
WillowFromBuffy said:
She's not really evil, is she? She's been protecting the world by herself for hundreds of years, waiting for Fray.
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Sorry for the late reply LOL. Its been a few years since I read that comic. From what I remember SPOILERS. Buffy had to to put Dark Willow down hundreds of years in the future because she got too wild? I might be remembering it wrong, but I do remember Buffy feeling guilty when she returned to the present when she met Willow again? I also recall Dark Willow working with Harth who is clearly not a good guy. Can someone correct me If I'm wrong? Been a while and I'm in no hurry to get the season 8 comics again.

IMO they need to do the Fray series. I just finished Ash Vs Evil Dead again. Have you ever seen that show? If not watch it now! You'll love it. Dana Delorenzo would make such a kick ass Slayer. She deserves her own show.

I also think that The Evil Dead and the Buffy franchise have a similar style (which is another reason Dana would make a good addition to the Buffyverse, and why anyone here should check out Evil Dead.) Both blend horror and comedy, and both feature heroes that are a bit more unconventional, and down on their luck.

I also think that the Deadites, the main villains from the Evil Dead franchise are pretty much exactly the same as the Buffyverse Vampires.

Look at it this way.

1/ They both have similar appearances. They can look human, but then morph into their true form, which has a bumpy forehead, sharp teeth, and bright eyes. (A few other films have given Vampires and Demons that look like The Lost Boys, but Evil Dead if I'm not mistaken was the first.)

2/ They both draw on HP Lovecraft. HP Lovecraft was a prominent horror author who created the Old Ones a race of legendary Demons who ruled the universe before man but were banished years ago, leaving behind descendants servants to try and free them.

In Evil Dead, ancient Demons known as the Dark Ones ruled the earth millennia ago, before they were banished to hell. However there is a book called the Necronimicon which can free them. (The Necronimicon is also featured in Lovecraft's works.) The Deadites are lesser Demons who have escaped the Necronimicon and plan to free the Dark Ones who will bring an end to the world of man.

In Buffy meanwhile as we know, there were all powerful Demons called the Old Ones who ruled the earth before being banished, but one of them fed on a human which turned him into a the first Vampire, a Demon/human hybrid who went onto infect more. The Vampires ultimate aim (at least in the earlier seasons.) Is to bring the Old Ones back and end the world of man.

3/ They have similar personalities. The Deadites are evil monsters that kill purely for their own amusement, and they enjoy prolonging their victims torture for as long as possible. As we know the same is true of Buffy Vampires who are all evil, bloodthirsty monsters that enjoy torturing, and killing for the hell of it.

4/ Both are not even human. The Deadites are simply Demons that inhabit the corpses of people they have killed. They absorb their hosts memories and even their negative personality traits, but they aren't actually them. Meanwhile with Buffy Vampires its the same thing. They are just Demons that inhabit human corpses and similarly have their memories, and negative traits, but they are not actually people.

Its also worth baring in mind that Joss Whedon is an avid fan of Evil Dead (it even I believe inspired Cabin in the Woods too.)

However I feel that in the later seasons of Buffy, the Vampires, thanks to the Spuffy romance got away from the Deadite template and went more for an Anne Rice style, which I personally didn't like. Sadly I think people tend to remember Buffy as being another show about romantic Vampires because of Spike and Angel.

I'm not saying its not respected generally, but I think people tend to overlook, what a great horror series it is, and how dark a take on Vampires the Buffy Vamps were.

Fray the series with Dana I think would remind people. She doesn't have a Vampire love interest, so they'd go back to being the badguys again, and Dana, whose style is very aggressive and unapologetically violent could kill them in all kinds of messy ways.
 
burrunjor said:
Sorry for the late reply LOL. Its been a few years since I read that comic. From what I remember SPOILERS. Buffy had to to put Dark Willow down hundreds of years in the future because she got too wild? I might be remembering it wrong, but I do remember Buffy feeling guilty when she returned to the present when she met Willow again? I also recall Dark Willow working with Harth who is clearly not a good guy. Can someone correct me If I'm wrong? Been a while and I'm in no hurry to get the season 8 comics again.
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You need to read S12 to get the full context.
In S12, we learn that Buffy had to go to a hell dimension along with most of the demons on Earth. Willow stayed behind to keep Earth safe. As no new slayers were called, she had to make herself immortal, so she could guard Earth indefinably. Over the years, loneliness and magic abuse drives her insane. When Fray is called, Willow figures that she is no longer needed and now she has two wishes left, namely that she wants to die and that she wants to see Buffy again.
 
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