Buffy : Season 8

Rupert "Ripper" Giles is a mainstay of Buffy the Vampire Slayer — even when he went off to Britain to ride horses, he was still a vital part of Buffy’s messed-up world.

So how does actor Anthony Stewart Head feel about what happened to the awesome character he helped to create? We asked him.

Spoilers below...

"It sucks, doesn’t it," Head says about the death of Rupert Giles in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics. But he adds:

But Giles kind of had to go, you know. And I kind of understand. It was a bit of a blow when I heard. Somebody said, ’Ooh, ooh! Giles! Did you hear?’ ’What?’ ’He’s dead.’ ’Oh. That sucks.’

But at least Head adds that he’s heard there are "interesting ideas afoot" for the Buffyverse. These may not necessarily include bringing back Giles — but "they’re interesting plans, as only something in the Whedonverse could possibly be."

When asked whether he’ll ever play Giles again, Head just gives us a pitying look. At the same time, he says "Never say never" — especially when it comes to the works of Joss Whedon.

Meanwhile, Head also says that he’s going to be doing a kind of "Madness of King George" riff in his role as Uther Pendragon in the upcoming fourth season of Merlin, which sounds like fun. And he reiterated what he said when he moderated the panel on NBC’s new magical cop show Grimm — he’d love to appear on Grimm, especially since the producers have promised to kill him off in some gruesomely interesting way.

We talked to Anthony Stewart Head at the Syfy/E! party at Comic-Con.