Buffy The Vampire Slayer Meets Wynonna Earp In Netflix's 2-Part Fantasy Series

Published Sep 10, 2026, 6:00 PM EDT

Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020.

Not only does one Netflix show manage to mix Buffy The Vampire Slayer with Wynonna Earp, but the series also has one secret ingredient that both its predecessors are missing. As surprising as it may sound, Buffy The Vampire Slayer is arguably one of the most influential shows of the ‘90s. Although the series was obviously a clear inspiration for later hits like Riverdale, Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and Once Upon A Time, Buffy The Vampire Slayer also helped shape shows like Veronica Mars and Pretty Little Liars.

Similarly, without Buffy The Vampire Slayer, there would likely be no KPop Demon Hunters, even though Netflix’s 2025 hit is much more family-friendly than the ‘90s show. Supernatural also owes a lot of its inspiration to Buffy The Vampire Slayer, as does the underrated four-season hit Evil, although SyFy’s Wynonna Earp might be one of the most obvious descendants of the series. Based on Beau Smith’s Image Comics character of the same name, Wynonna Earp lasted four seasons with 49 episodes.

The show focused on the titular heroine, Wyatt Earp’s great-great-granddaughter, who is saddled with the same curse as the rest of her family. Wynonna is gifted a magic gun and must use it to send revenants and demons back to Hell as she patrols her hometown, the aptly named Purgatory. This premise made for a fun blend of dark fantasy, horror, and Neo-Western cop show, but Netflix’s later Warrior Nun made Wynonna Earp’s story even better by adding one thing the SyFy series and Buffy The Vampire Slayer were both missing.

Warrior Nun Mixes Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s Premise With Wynonna Earp’s Western Elements

Based on a comic book character created by Ben Dunn, Warrior Nun stars Alba Baptista as Ava Silva, a quadriplegic teenager who discovers she is destined to become the titular warrior nun after she wakes up in a morgue with a cursed sword sticking out of her back. The good news is that Ava has gained supernatural powers, but the bad news is she must use them to fight demons on behalf of the shadowy Order of the Cruciform Sword.

Like both Wynonna Earp’s titular heroine and Buffy herself, Ava inherits a role as a supernatural protector that she never asked for, and must contend with what this means for her life as a once-ordinary young woman. However, while Warrior Nun’s premise is familiar for fans of the earlier shows, the Netflix series has one ingredient that both hits were missing. Rated TV-MA, Warrior Nun is a gritty, gory show that doesn’t skimp on brutal action and horror.

Much like Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s darker replacement Interview with the Vampire, Warrior Nun takes the poignant character writing and supernatural stakes of the ‘90s hit and adds in more gore, more tragedy, and more R-rated nastiness to up the ante. The result in an action-packed thrill ride that feels legitimately dark, earning the series a loyal fan base who pushed for its renewal after the show was canceled in 2022.

Netflix’s Underrated Warrior Nun Has One Thing Both Earlier Supernatural Shows Are Missing

While it might not seem like more gore alone would have improved Wynonna Earp or Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Warrior Nun’s more mature rating wasn’t just down caused by the show’s bloodier violence. As a whole, Warrior Nun had a darker tone than both earlier hits, and critics even noted that the Netflix show risked alienating casual viewers with its heavy reliance on religious lore and dour exposition.

Indeed, for some viewers, Warrior Nun took itself a little too seriously for a show with such an inherently silly premise. However, as noted above, everything from KPop Demon Hunters to Riverdale had already offered a more self-consciously silly spin on the ‘90s show. As such, Warrior Nun was right to join Netflix’s recent Revival as a show inspired by Wynonna Earp and Buffy The Vampire Slayer that was unafraid of getting darker than its cult classic predecessors.