Will Modesto’s James Marsters return as Spike? What he’s said about ‘Buffy’ reboot

Modesto-bred James Marsters made a name for himself as the vampire Spike in the TV series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”

With a pilot for a reboot of the hit show ordered by Hulu, there’s online speculation that he may resume his role.

According to an online story on Collider, the Davis High School graduate let it slip that there may be such a return.

“During a recent stop by on Charisma Carpenter’s ‘The Bitch is Back’ rewatch podcast, series favorite James Marsters potentially had a foot-in-mouth moment when talking about his involvement in the new production,” the Collider story said.

Talking about rewatching the series, Marsters said that he had “to ask myself, ‘Can you play that character again?’ Never mind the externals. Can you internally get back to that psychology?”

Carpenter asked if Marsters was saying he’s part of the reboot. “Quickly backpedaling, Marsters said, “I am not. No. I have no idea.” But, he eventually softened on the idea, adding, “Let’s see. What can I say? There is interest in having me back,” according to the Collider story.

Original “Buffy” star Sarah Michelle Gellar is reprising her title role in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer: New Sunnydale,” Collider said. It’s set years after the original ended, with a new slayer and Gellar’s Buffy as her mentor. Fifteen-year-old Ryan Kiera Armstrong (the Hulu series “The Lowdown,” with Ethan Hawke, and the Disney+ series “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew”) has been cast as that new slayer, Nova.

“She’s warned audiences not to get their hopes up for the return of their faves, at least until the new crew gets a chance to shine,” the Collider story said of Gellar, which is in line with what Marsters went on to say on the podcast.

“I’ve been saying, when asked, that if I was producing the reboot, I wouldn’t call me yet,” Marsters is reported on Collider as saying. “I would have to do the origin story of the new slayer, I would have to introduce all of her friends, I would have to set up the new world ... before I dropped in any other characters, whether other new characters that I imagine or whether it’s characters from the original show. So, I wouldn’t imagine that I would be called until — the earliest will be the end of Season 1, possibly into Season 2, is when I’d do it.”

The original series ran for seven seasons from 1997 to 2003. Marsters went on to play the same role in the “Buffy” spinoff, “Angel.”

But how, currently at age 63, would Marsters return as an immortal vampire all these years later? Maybe it could be because, according to various online accounts of “Buffy The Vampire Slayer,” Spike went through a process and managed to retain his soul in the sixth season. Possibly that rendered him mortal again?

Marsters left things on the podcast “to add to our ever-growing suspicion,” the Collider story said: “I would be surprised if I’m not called, and I would be surprised if I was called now.”