Vampires Spike and Drusilla are taking Detroit by storm.
“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Angel” stars James Marsters (Spike) and Juliet Landau (Drusilla) will attend the Motor City Comic Con in Novi the weekend of Nov. 13-15. While both have attended MC3 before, this is the first time they’ll attend together.
They’ll be joined by Ross Marquand (“The Walking Dead”), Mary McDonnell (“Battlestar Galactica”), Aaron Paul (“Breaking Bad”), Jack Quaid (“The Boys”), Martin Sheen (“Apocalypse Now”), Kyra Sedgwick (“The Closer”), Michael Mando (“Spider-Man: Brand New Day”), University of Michigan alumna Colleen O’Shaugnessey (“Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes”), et al (see sidebar).
“Detroit’s a beautiful city,” said Marsters, of Los Angeles. “I love a place where you can tell it rains. The desert out here is fun, it’s nice… but I do like the seasons. Detroit is a town where I can get my arms around it. It’s not overwhelming. It doesn’t make me feel small. I’m not dwarfed by Detroit as I am by Manhattan, London, or L.A.”
A self-professed drama nerd, Marsters studied at the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts in Santa Maria, CA and the Julliard School in New York City. A classically trained Shakespearean actor, Marsters is a veteran of the stage. He has been active in the theater community in Chicago and Seattle.
Marsters’ best-known role is Spike, the bleached-blond British vampire who debuted during the second season of “Buffy,” starring Sarah Michelle Gellar as the titular character. Initially, creator Joss Whedon planned to kill Spike off after several episodes, but fans loved the character. As a result, Spike became a regular on “Buffy” from Seasons 4-7 and a regular on the final season of “Angel,” the spin-off.
“To Joss, evil is not cool; evil is not sexy. That’s why he made (the vampires) look so horrific when we bit someone; he didn’t want that moment to be sensual in any way; he wanted it to be scary,” recalled Marsters. “Joss got talked into one romantic vampire. He told me, ‘I’m not interested in that Anne Rice crap.’ He found a way to talk about bad things that happen to people without blaming any group, without getting preachy. By making it vampires, he hit the nail on the head without hurting anybody. Vampires weren’t supposed to be the good guys at all, and he got talked into one romantic vampire – that wasn’t his idea – and it was Angel (David Boreanaz). He used Angel and that took off like a rocket and he said. ‘That’s it, no more. We’re not doing any more of that.’”
But they did. Spike eventually became Buffy’s lover. According to Marsters, Whedon didn’t create Spike to be a romantic character. Whedon envisioned Spike and Drusilla as the Sex Pistols’ Sid Vicious of Nancy Spungen as vampires.
“To play this character, there was some weird dark corner in me that would enjoy that,” said Marsters. “What I landed on was the animal reaction, not some messed-up thing within me specifically, but just within any predator. Human beings are predators; we have predator eyes – we are predators. There was a deep, million-year-old voice in me that would enjoy being a predator and hunting and killing. To have the audience celebrate that and want to get closer to that made me uncomfortable. I’m like, ‘I feel guilty that I’ve admitted this about myself and everyone’s loving it. What the hell?’”
He continued: “I remember Joss backed me up against the wall and put his finger in my face – ‘I don’t care how popular you are, kid, you are dead! You are dead! You ARE dead! Do you hear me?’ I put my hands up and was like, ‘It’s your football, boss. Whatever you wanna do, we’re gonna do.’”
Marsters enjoyed working alongside Landau.
“She’s amazing. She’s a fearless artist,” said Marsters. “When I first started working with Juliet, I realized she’s not concerned with looking pretty all the time. Most actors, their main concern is looking good on camera and that’s okay – I get it! The only thing she was very concerned about was, ‘Am I being true? Am I being interesting? Am I being dangerous? Am I pushing the line somehow?’ That just spoke to me and I’m like, ‘That’s it!’”
Landau returned the compliment.
“James is an actor’s actor,” she explained. “We’re supposed to have been together for 200 years, and you can’t be shy with someone after 200 years. The characters had great chemistry; that was a huge ingredient. Their love story was so interesting because it had gone on for centuries, balancing out their evil and diabolical sides. They had a tender side; it was a bit kinky, but it was fun.”
Added Marsters: “There was a part of Spike I could only get to when Juliet was on stage with me – the original, dirty punk rock vampire. That can only be achieved when I’m working with her; I found that with her.”
Marsters shared his insights about the staying power of “Buffy,” which turns 30 in 2027.
“I suspected that we might last beyond our original run. I heard that the summer rerun numbers were good when we were filming. People were watching it again. People said, ‘I want to see it again because I want to hear all the jokes. I was laughing too hard at the previous joke,’” he said. “Something clicked in my mind: We might be making a world delightful enough and useful that people will want to go back to it even when they know what the dialogue is, what the plot is. It’s the world we were creating and the message we were giving: The message of ‘Don’t give it, even when you’re really hurting.’ It’s a good theme. I didn’t think it would become the little juggernaut it’s become, but I thought it might last. I really did. I remember going to the cast more than once late at night, ‘We might be talking about this scene for the rest of our lives. Anyone got coffee?’”
Earlier in 2026, the pilot episode of “Buffy: New Sunnydale,” the reboot/sequel series, wasn’t picked up, much to the disappointment of many. The producers told Marsters that he would be on the show at some point.
“I don’t know anything more. But I would not assume that the people at Hulu don’t know what they’re doing. I don’t know if I would agree with them. I didn’t see the pilot. I think it would be unwise to vilify anyone involved. (Oscar winner) Chloé Zhao was trying to do something amazing. She was very brave to want to reboot ‘Buffy,’ which was really well done. There’s a big risk in trying to bring it back and not living up to the original, but she was willing. She talked Sarah into coming back, which I was very surprised about. I never thought she’d come back,” he explained.
Even though “New Sunnydale” didn’t move forward, Marsters is still willing to play Spike again.
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“It’s a blast to play Spike!” he said. “The big draw of a vampire character is it’s a nice escape hatch that the audience has about mortality… these creatures will always be young and pretty and they might turn you into a vampire, so you’ll always be young and pretty. It’s so powerful that people forgive vampires for the heinous things they do. There’s ghouls and there’s vampires. They have the same job description: They go out at night and rip open innocent people. And we hate ghouls! We have a sadistic glee when they’re lit on fire, but we love vampires so much that we wanna be one!”
Remembering 3 “Buffy” Actors
Three main cast members of the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” have died since early 2025, including Michelle Trachtenberg (Dawn Summers) on Feb. 26, 2025; Nicholas Brendon (Xander Harris) on March 20; and Anthony Stewart Head (Rupert Giles) on June 1. James Marsters shared his memories about each of them.
Trachtenberg: “Michelle had a Mensa-level intelligence. When I first met her, she was a 15-year-old with a super-computer on her shoulders; it was bracing (laughter). When I learned how smart she was, I thought, ‘Wow, a teenage outlook combined with a high intellect is probably not gonna be fun to hang around with.’ Teens generally think they know everything… Michelle wasn’t like that. She was really smart and saw a lot around her. She was very clear-headed and friendly and happy to be doing what she was doing. She was a ‘Buffy’ fan before she got cast, so she was overwhelmed. We shared that and bonded over how good the show was. She was also quite the professional at 15! She was well-seasoned, amazingly. She fit right in.”
Brendon: “Nick was frustrating. He just couldn’t make a mistake. I’d go home and memorize my lines, spending an extra hour after a 20-hour day getting it altogether. He would just show up and made it look effortless. He was just (expletive) brilliant! That made it so frustrating.”
Head: “He was my informal dialect coach. He also, without knowing it, taught me most of what I know about television acting. I learned by watching him. He was the best of us. He was the best actor on the show. He was the best human being in the cast, hands down. He was unflappably gracious… I was very lucky that an actor of Tony’s caliber was working on the show, so I started watching him. I’d come in on my day off and watch him work. He was real. He wasn’t performing; he was existing. That’s very different. He was giving the camera something honest and real to document.”
The Motor City Comic Con
The Motor City Comic Con will be at the Vibe Credit Union Showplace, located at 46100 Grand River Ave. in Novi on the following dates and times:
- Friday, Nov. 13, from noon-7 p.m.
- Saturday, Nov. 14, from 10 a.m.-7 p.m.
- Sunday, Nov. 15, from 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Ticket prices and packages range between $5 and $299. Children 5 and under attend free throughout the weekend. Children 12 and under attend free with a paid adult on Sunday, Nov. 15.
Tickets can be purchased online at motorcitycomiccon.com.. Prices go up $5-$10 at the door. Additional processing fees will apply. Admission does not include parking or the cost of autographs and selfies. All guest appearances are subject to change or cancellation. MC3 is not responsible for any cancellations.
For questions or more information, call 248-426-8059 or visit motorcitycomiccon.com.
