John Whedon’s cult classic supernatural series, released sometime in 1997 and called, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, continues to be a fan favorite show, having introduced to them many iconic characters. The show had taken inspiration from a movie that came out in 1992, with the same name, and got popular enough to have its own novels, games, and comics.
The show follows the life story of our leading character Buffy Summers, who, much like some other “chosen women,” was a vampire slayer, or just a “slayer”, selected by fate to fight against dark forces and evil spirits. Her identity as a slayer has perks of its own, including increased physical strength, fast healing, agility, endurance, and much more, but all of this does not matter to Buffy, who would rather be a normal girl.
Not wanting to be the “protector” the heavens want her to be, the show takes us on a journey where we watch Buffy grow into her identity and learn to embrace it. With a total of seven seasons, the show had many hooked to their screens in anticipation of the next episode.
The characters and the plot might be familiar to you already, but what you might not know could be what went down with one of the characters on the show, Oz. Played by Seth Green, the character was revealed to be a werewolf in the first season of the show and also ended up dating Willow in the season as well.
His shy yet funny character with dark undertones hidden behind his werewolf self was much loved by fans who wanted to see more of him on the show, but the actor, Seth Green, eventually announced his departure from the show and we are here to tell you why.
Why Did Seth Green Leave Buffy?
We first spotted him in Buffy’s second season, this cool yet quiet guy who just so happened to be a musician and the much-needed werewolf of our vampire story. He joined the show in the second season and ended up leaving in the sixth.
The actor revealed that he did not feel the makers’ sincerity in molding his character and taking it forward. Feeling stuck with the limited ways of Oz, the actor had a talk with Whedon, but after realizing that he was not going to get his way with the character, Seth decided to step out of the show.
His shy and soft character in the second season caught the eyes of many, who fell in love with him immediately. Very soon, Oz was revealed to be in a relationship with Willow, and fans could not get enough of it. Not long after his relationship, he also found out that he had the ability to turn into a dangerous werewolf.
As cool as that was, Buffy struggled with this fact and that he was capable of so much destruction in his altered form. Over the seasons, he is forced to kill a fellow werewolf woman who is not going to be good for Willow, and it is after this incident, that Oz decides he is going to stop dating Willow.
Around the time Oz was away from Willow, to find out more about himself, fans did not see much of him on the show. By the time the sixth season rolled, we only got to see Oz for the first four episodes, after which he was completely out of the show.
During his time in the show, we saw him in a total of thirty-nine episodes, all of which were exceptionally done. While it is right that the actor felt that the makers of the show were not pushing Oz to its full potential as a werewolf, it was not the real reason why the actor decided to leave the show.
Around the time of the release of the sixth season, Seth Green had also received offers from other producers, which he decided to accept. His getting bigger and more fulfilling offers from the world outside of Buffy could have been another reason why Seth decided to say goodbye to the beloved series.
Though it was abrupt, fans did not take long to move on from the character’s departure from the show, taking comfort in the presence of other characters.
