Monica Owusu-Breen, writer, executive producer and showrunner of the planned reboot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is addressing backlash that followed the announcement of the new version last Friday, which revealed producers intend for the new slayer to be African American.

In a statement posted to her verified Twitter account, Owusu-Breen writes “it could be time to meet a new Slayer.”

“For some genre writers it’s Star Wars. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is my Star Wars. Before I became a writer, I was a fan,” Owusu-Breen wrote. “For seven seasons, I watched Buffy Summers grow up, find love, kill that love. I watched her fight, and struggle and slay,” she wrote. “There is only one Buffy. One Xander, one Willow, Giles, Cordelia, Oz, Tara, Kendra, Faith, Spike, Angel … They can’t be replaced. Joss Whedon’s brilliant and beautiful series can’t be replicated. I wouldn’t try to. But here we are, 20 years later … and the world seems a lot scarier. So maybe, it could be time to meet a new Slayer … And that’s all I can say.”

A reboot of the supernatural drama is in development at Fox 21 TV Studios, the cable/streaming division of 20th Century Fox TV, the studios behind the original series, which ran for seven seasons, first on the WB and then on UPN. Original series’ creator and showrunner Joss Whedon will executive produce alongside original series’ exec producers Gail Berman, Fran Kazui and Kaz Kazui as well as Joe Earley from Berman’s Jackal Group.

The new version, which will be pitched to streaming and cable networks this summer, will be contemporary, building on the mythology of the original. Per the producers: “Like our world, it will be richly diverse, and like the original, some aspects of the series could be seen as metaphors for issues facing us all today.”