When Alyson Hannigan reunited with the rest of the cast for Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s 20th anniversary, it felt at first as though no time had passed at all.



“It was an absolute blast,” she says. “I hadn’t seen a lot of the people since we wrapped. It’s sort of like one of those things where no time has passed.

“And then, when everyone was talking about their aches and pains and backaches, it was like, ‘Oh yeah, we are 20 years older.’”

Hannigan is set to appear at pop culture convention Comic-Con’s Australian iteration, Oz Comic-Con, in Melbourne this July. It will be her first Australian appearance and has coincided with the anniversary of Joss Whedon’s television show.

Before Buffy, Hannigan was a struggling actor, booking weekly spots on TV series such as Touched By An Angel. But, when she landed the role of Buffy Summer’s closest friend, Willow Rosenberg – who grows from a timid high school girl to a powerful witch through the series – she became synonymous with one of the strong female characters that Whedon is most renowned for.

Anthony Stuart Head, who played Rupert Giles in the show, recently described Whedon’s show as a feminist parable, one that was all-inclusive. But although the series undoubtedly paved the way for far more strong female leads in Hollywood, the recent controversy over the critically acclaimed Wonder Woman proves we’re not there yet.

Keyboard warriors lurking in dark corners of the internet have objected to all-female screenings of the film, using its popularity among women as an opportunity to tear down the character herself.

Hannigan has no time for it. “[They’re] picking this amazing character apart because she’s a woman ... it’s just so frustrating,” she says, of Wonder Woman.

“That guy who’s sitting there at his computer ... I’m just like, ‘Dude, really?!’ Your life must be really frustrating if you find fault in an awesome superhero because they’re not a man.”

From a timid high school girl to a powerful witch: Alyson Hannigan in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Photograph: Allstar/20 CENTURY FOX/Sportsphoto Ltd./Allstar

Willow’s relationship with another female character, Tara (Amber Benson), was complex and elegantly crafted, and one of the first times that a relationship between two women was really explored on prime time television.

Hannigan remembers it as a “beautiful” pairing: “It wasn’t about it being two women; it was a beautiful relationship that happened to be between two woman ... why can’t we all just be people?”

Buffy struck her in more personal ways as well. A famous early episode, Out of Sight, Out of Mind – about a lonely high school girl – was one that she particularly connected with.



“Having not had a good experience in my personal high school life, to be able to be part of a show that reflects that – it just resonated so profoundly with me. I was just over the moon to have been a part of it,” she says. “That storyline of the girl not being seen in high school, and then she literally disappears – it was like, ‘Oh my God’. I thought, ‘Joss saw me in high school’.”

Hannigan has starred in all kinds of productions, from the film American Pie to a stage show of When Harry Met Sally. But Buffy is still why she’s stopped in the street.

“It’s such a gift,” she says. “The fact that it still happens all the time, it’s never lost on me. It’s so touching – I’m so grateful that I got to be a part of that.

“That’s why I love television so much, because it was all of those things for me growing up, when I needed it.”

• Alyson Hannigan will be meeting fans at Oz Comic-Con Melbourne on 1-2 July.

