Say what you will about Joss Whedon, but his use of a colorful character palette & quirky, punchy style of dialog have gone from niche to mainstream in the 30+ years since Buffy. Mostly thanks to Whedon’s and his imitators’ escalating success with that formula: The Avengers, for example, took Marvel from a series of above-average superhero hits to total cultural dominance.

There’s plenty of writing talent out there that grew up wanting to emulate Buffy and Firefly, so if hearts and budgets are in the right place, recapturing that part of the show should be eminently feasible.