There are pop culture references aplenty in the cult favorite TV series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” but the franchise that gets the biggest nod of all is “Star Wars.” Sure, the heroes call themselves the Scooby gang in reference to the old “Scooby Doo” cartoons, but you’re more likely to hear a character quote Yoda than Velma or Shaggy. The vast majority of the references come from either Xander (Nicholas Brendon) — who was clearly a sort of self-insert for series creator Joss Whedon — or the Trio, a triple threat of turbo-nerds who challenge the Scooby gang in their efforts to become real-life supervillains. However, there are still a lot of “Star Wars” Easter eggs for a show about a high school student who fights the undead.
In an interview with “Star Wars Insider,” the series’ writers all revealed the reasons behind those numerous bits of “Star Wars” littered about “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” and it all boils down to the fact that just because they became big shot TV writers, they didn’t lose their geeky fandom tendencies.
Nerds writing nerds
Writer Drew Greenburg was the most frank when talking to “Star Wars Insider” about the plethora of “Star Wars” references in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” having said:
“… we’re just a bunch of geeks, and we love Star Wars. It’s the most powerful feeling in the world where you get to say, ‘You know what? I love ‘Star Wars,’ and now you’re all going to have to listen to my ‘Star Wars’ references.”
While that’s not nearly as impressive as Patton Oswalt’s legendary “Star Wars” filibuster from “Parks and Recreation,” the idea of putting the things you love in the show you’re writing is pretty relatable. Greenburg is more intentional than fellow writers David Fury and Drew Goddard, who both said that the lines come naturally when writing certain characters, like the Trio or Xander. Writer and director Doug Petrie joked that they are all “just a bunch of raging geeks,” which posits the question: who better to write raging geeks than a bunch of raging geeks?
Complicated love for the fanboys
When it comes to “Star Wars,” sometimes all the group needed was to listen to what was happening around the office for inspiration. Fury jokes that whenever he needed something for the Trio to talk about, he would just pop out of his office a bit and “listen to whatever Doug and Drew are arguing about.” All of that passion helped bring the Trio and Xander to life and made them feel more like real people and not just two-dimensional television characters.
Unfortunately, “Star Wars” fans aren’t represented in a particularly positive way in “Buffy,” since the Trio are goofy villains who desperately want to be villainous and Xander’s pretty hard to love, as Brendon has been in trouble with the law, including domestic violence charges, and Whedon has his own problematic history. The “Star Wars” fandom as a whole is wildly diverse, with lots of different people from different walks of life, but there’s a small contingent that is pretty accurately represented by the geeks on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” Thankfully, they’re only a small contingent, but they sure are noisy. Loving “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and its “Star Wars” Easter eggs can be a little trickier these days, but there’s still a whole lot to love.