the comics are being completely ignored, no longer considered canon
25 years after buffy quit the watchers council, she and giles and her friends formed a new organization to support the many slayers worldwide that were activated at the end of season seven
no new slayers have been called since then and the youngest of those is now 40 years old
in the background, the watchers council, who were in charge of the fight against evil for thousands of years, quietly reformed and started rebuilding their sphere of influence in the old worlds of politics and ancient institutions
also in the years since the original show, sunnydale has been rebuilt, it's now called new sunnydale and is home to buffy's hq
in recent years, prior to the start of this new show, slayers have been dying in increasing numbers, with it eventually becoming clear that they're being intentionally assassinated by the watchers council, looking to wipe the slate clean and take back control of the line of slayers
the watchers council's footsoldiers are basically male slayers, no superpowers but trained from birth in slayer-style combat and weapons
one of these will defect from the council and be a love interest for ryan's character
there are still several slayers left, most of them in hiding, but when faith is assassinated the first new slayer in 20 years is activated
this is where the show starts
buffy arranges for the new slayer to be transferred to new sunnydale high so she can be protected and kept from the watchers council's influence
the hellmouth is still active despite the end of season 7 although basically reset to season 1 levels of demonic attraction
the central theme of the show is staying vigilent in the face of the patriarchy as it tries to claw back control of the culture and exert its power over women
i'm not directly working on the show but i've read the internal documents the production company has shared with hulu
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