March Madness! The Whedonverse Alternate Universe Tourney - Losers Round 1

It's March Madness time here at Buffyfest! This year we are pitting lost Joss Whedon projects against one another to see what would be most desired in a Magical Alternate Universe of fun. This should answer burning questions like: What if Angel hadn't been cancelled? What if Joss Whedon had been able to make the original Wonder Woman movie we were all anticipating? And how would a tooned up Buffy of lost S.1 episodes play out?

In the first round:
Firefly beat the Whedon's real vision for the OG Buffy film, I guess Kristy Swanson did a good enough job for everyone's needs.
Ripper beat the lost Wonder Woman film, guess SMG in that costume did enough there.
A Spike Made-for-TV movie narrowly beat Angel S.2 - see this I don't really understand just from a logic point of view of wanting a stand-alone 2 hr movie over a whole other season of Angel that Blondie Bear would've been in anyway. But hey, Spike fans are serious.
And finally, Faith the Series beat Buffy the Animated Series - Really tough call there.

Because we're doing a "Double Elimination" tournament, every contender needs to lose twice. This means, all the first round nominees get a second chance at glory! So this is basically the loser's round. Here, Wonder Woman is facing the OG Buffy movie and Buffy Animated is facing Angel S.2. That one is weird because they are both more of the Buffyverse that we never got to see. The difference is Angel would be more of a dramatic conclusion and Buffy Animated would be fill in side stories from S.1, albeit kiddie style. But both would have had Boreanaz's old "pre-Bones era" forehead size.

This round will have 2 matches and will end on Wednesday night at 11:59 pm EST. Vote below for the Whedon project you'd like to see most in a Magical Alternate Universe:

Notes:
Whedon's Wonder Woman: Little concrete was ever revealed about Joss's Wonder Woman, but one can feel certain it would have been a fresh take on a long-standing character that varies back and forth between groundbreaking role-model and demeaning throwback. Not only would it have been valuable to put the heroine in the hands of one of the few writers known for writing truly powerful women, it would have managed to get a Justice League movie on the table sooner than The Avengers.










Whedon's Buffy Movie: Joss's disappointment with the original movie necessitated a do-over TV series which led to this blog existing in the first place. Key points removed from the screenplay include the existence of a council of Watchers in a small villain outside Stonehenge, the concept of "vampire kings", and the nature of how the slayers are called (instead of the implied reincarnation in the final version of the movie).

Notes:
Buffy Animated: Mixed feelings existed about the idea of re-envisioning the Scooby gang for a younger audience, but including the incomparable Jeph Loeb as a creator would have ensured a level of quality found in few cartoons. While most people would prefer material not set in the past, it would still have allowed new stories and the return of departed characters long missed (or the return of characters acting the way they did when they were more liked). Plus, preteen Dawn interacting with Angel.









Angel Season 6: In the wake of "Not Fade Away", it's really hard to guess what would have happened. Would Angel Investigations reopened? Would it have gone according to Joss's original plan and given us the intending ending? Would he have changed his mind and gone with something more like After the Fall? Would we ever have seen the other wing of the hotel again? And most importantly, could Angel and Spike ever have lived up to our expectations?

And click below to enlarge the entire bracket: