Seth Green came to Whedon early in the fourth season to announce that he wished to work on his film career.

The scene was, upon completion, noticeably sensual to Whedon, the producers, and network executives, who encouraged Whedon to develop a romantic storyline between Willow and Tara, but at the same time placed barriers on how far it could go and what could be shown.

Whedon made a conscious effort to focus on Willow and Tara's relationship instead of either's identity as a lesbian or the coming out process.

Animator Pete Docter, director John Lasseter, musician Randy Newman, producers Bonnie Arnold and Ralph Guggenheim, production designer Ralph Eggleston, and writers Joel Cohen, Alec Sokolow, Andrew Stanton, and Joss Whedon all won awards for " Best Individual Achievement " in their respective fields for their work on the film.

In Season Four, Spike was introduced to fill the antagonistic role that Cordelia had in seasons One to Three ; as Joss Whedon explains on the DVD featurette, " All of our characters got to the point where they were loving and hugging, and it was sort of like, where's Cordelia?

It is unclear whether they resume their sexual intimacy during the third night ; creator Joss Whedon says on the DVD commentary for " Chosen " that he intentionally left it to the viewers to decide how they felt the relationship progressed, though Whedon had earlier stated on the commentary he personally felt having them resume a sexual relationship would send the wrong message.

Jan de Bont brought in Joss Whedon a week before principal photography started to work on the script.

Whedon worked predominantly on the dialogue, but also created a few significant plot points, like the killing of Harry Temple.

The series was created by Buffys creator, Joss Whedon, in collaboration with David Greenwalt, and first aired on October 5, 1999.

For the first three seasons, David Greenwalt, who co-created the series with Whedon, was also credited as executive producer ; during this time, he also took on the role of show runner.

Joss Whedon posted a message on a popular fan site, The Bronze: Beta, in which he expressed his dismay and surprise, saying he was " heartbroken " and compared it to a " healthy guy falling dead from a heart attack.

Whedon killed off Giles where he did so that it might have a greater effect on the coming season, " because wanted to make all this matter ".

Dawn Summers is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon and introduced by Marti Noxon and David Fury on the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, portrayed by Michelle Trachtenberg.

Whedon has expressed regret over not being able to go further with Dawn's character in season seven, but, as he says, " You get into a situation that you do like to stand alone ' Dawn Goes on a Date ' is not something that people would really sit for.

Xander is based in part on Whedon himself, particularly in his high school years ; as such, he is often the most geeky as well as witty and verbose of Buffy < nowiki >'</ nowiki > s characters.

Brendon recognised that Xander was based on Joss Whedon when he had attended high school, accounting for why Xander " gets all the good lines ".

Joss Whedon comments on this in his commentary for " Chosen "; " The thing that is sort of reviled for, making up stories, becomes the thing that he helps Xander with.

This prompted creator Joss Whedon to more formally comment on Andrew's sexuality, on Whedonesque. com.

When she did, Hannigan found her on set and upon learning she was up for the role, told Whedon to hire Benson at the same moment Benson got the call from her agent that she had won the part.

Writer Peg Aloi calls the backlash at Whedon " staggering ", and summarizes Tara's effect with Willow, stating that they were a single unit the moment they met: " Willow's need for approval and Tara's need for unconditional love allowed their supernova trajectory its singular, incendiary thrust toward its triumphant but tragic end ; like all witches who burn, martyred by flames, they move on to a place where their gods are the right ones.

Joss Whedon found that Hannigan was especially gifted reacting with fear ( calling her the " king of pain ") and viewers responded strongly when she was placed in danger, needing to be rescued by Buffy.

Whedon divulged that recovering her magical abilities will become Willow's " personal obsession " in a miniseries where she will be the central character.

Whedon and the writing staff had been considering developing a story arc in which a character explores his or her sexuality as the Scoobies left high school, but no particular effort was made to assign this arc to Willow.

Whedon, however, has compared her Jewish identity to her sexuality, stating that they are rarely made a significant focus of the show.

Whedon always intended for the character to become an icon, claiming " I wanted her to be a hero that existed in people's minds the way Wonder Woman or Spider-Man does, you know?

Joss Whedon joked at the Nocturnal convention in 2001 Anya was originally supposed to die during the Season Five finale, " The Gift ", but he had to keep her alive because Emma Caulfield couldn't keep still while Xander was carrying Anya's supposedly lifeless body.

" She's as intense as she was in Season Two with Angelus, but it's about her sister ," Whedon says.

Trachtenberg says she was thrust into the role without knowing much about Dawn's personality ; she describes her initial meeting with Joss Whedon as " Alright, welcome to the cast, you're a teenager, you're a Key, have fun.

Joss Whedon stated that Dawn was originally going to be a younger character, which the writing reflecting this, but after Sarah Michelle Gellar suggested Trachtenberg for the role they raised her age.

Tara had become popular among fans, and Whedon and series writer David Fury decided that her death would elicit a strong response, something that Whedon felt sure was the correct course to take.

Joss Whedon recognized this when he stated in an interview that killing Jenny, and the manner of her dispatching, was precisely devised to make several points.

After much discussion, Whedon and the writers decided that Angel should not bite Jenny, but instead break her neck as a show of his contempt for her: " I'm not even going to feed " is the attitude Whedon wanted to communicate, as well as Angel's evident pleasure in the act.

Seven years after the character's creation, Whedon granted her the surname Lehane for a role-playing game and subsequent material.

Joss Whedon describes her as everything Buffy would never let herself become ; although Buffy is tempted by Faith's approach to slaying, she ultimately decides not to make the same choices herself.

" In an interview, Dushku talked about how Dollhouse, and how her reconnection with Whedon came about:

Despite Fred's soul supposedly shattering in the process of Illyria taking over her body, Joss Whedon originally intended for either Fred and Illyria to be split in two had Angel gotten a sixth season, as revealed by Amy Acker in an interview: " As I ’ m playing this new character now, it was just some stuff that he was going to do with her and bringing Fred back and getting to work with both characters ", or for Illyria to take on more and more of Fred's memories.

Jenna Busch, in her book Joss Whedon: The Complete Companion, called Adam " one of Buffys least interesting Big Bads " and argued that his story-arc involving the Initiative was " rather unconvincing and somewhat off-putting ".

Evangeline Whedon ( a mutant possessing dragon transmorphic abilities ) also made numerous appearances.

In 2007, Buffy's story was continued when Joss Whedon resurrected Buffy the Vampire Slayer as a comic book.

In the explicitly-canonical Whedon stories of 2007, Spike and Angel first appear in a joint cameo in Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight ( Dark Horse ) as part of Buffy's sexual fantasies.

Whedon intended Riley to be the antithesis of Buffy's boyfriend of the past three seasons, Angel ( David Boreanaz ), who now headed his own spin-off show.

Doug Petrie characterizes Faith as " Buffy's evil twin ", who gets to do what Buffy would like to do, but cannot because Buffy is moral and not as " free-spirited " as Faith, according to Whedon.

In the theater scene during Willow's dream, a Frazier lens was used to provide a large depth of field, allowing both the foreground and background to be in focus at the same time, while in Xander's dream, as he moves from room to room in Buffy's house to the university dorm rooms, Whedon used a 17 mm lens to give a sense of motion as the camera passes by walls.

In the commentary, when Joss Whedon is asked about his decision to turn Angel evil, he said that he feels it was necessary to keep the story fresh as viewers would quickly become bored with Angel and Buffy's relationship.

In the DVD commentary, Whedon says the interaction between Buffy and Angel following their night of passion was supposed to have taken place outside of Buffy's house.

In The Psychology of Joss Whedon, two academic psychologists identify the source of Buffy's strength as her mother, paired with Giles ' mentorship.

The buttons on Buffy's phone are abnormally large, an effect that Whedon added because he experienced it when his mother died.