Buffy the Vampire Slayer Animated Series in the Works?

Will Buffy be slaying animated vampires in the near future? It seems to be moving forward, according to Jeph Loeb. MTV Movies Blog caught up with Buffy the Vampire Slayer executive producer Jeph Loeb who said that Buffy: The Animated Series has found some new life again... maybe.

"It was a very simple entry point," Loeb said. "There is a girl in high school who has been chosen to fight evil, and there's a great deal of it in her town. Here are her friends, and here is her watcher."

Loeb said that the initial idea was for him and Joss Whendon to do an animated series in 2002, which would've taken place within Season 1 of the live-action show.

"We liked to call it episode seven-and-a-half," Loeb joked. "It was a much simpler time. Angel had been introduced, but he was not yet Angelus. We could retrofit Dawn as a ten-year-old, so you can really play the older sister gag. Their mom is alive."

The series did call back original stars Alyson Hannigan, Nicholas Brendan, and Anthony Stewart for voice roles but, after shopping the series around, there was little to no interest. Fox Family picked the show up for its Fox Kids network, but the deal went through with Disney's buy-out. Now, the series is without a home, but with some buzz behind it.

A short pilot of the series was leaked to YouTube and now an online petition has been started calling for the series to be aired. What does Loeb make of all this?

"The best Buffy stories are ones of resurrection," Joeb said. "Everything still exists - the designs, the scripts. It's such a 'no-duh' project, so why the hell not? All you need is to draw it. Eight years ago, there was no fascination with Family Guy or Robot Chicken, but there's an audience now that could drive to it. You can't stand in the way of pop culture."

We'll have more on this potential series as soon as we have more information.