Joss Whedon

Spike It! Sure, the shows were called Buffy and Angel, but the results of our recent Whedonverse Poll prove that it’s Spikey—James Marsters—who has the never-say-die, die-hard following. Granted, I’m not surprised by the winner, given the postcards, emails, fruit baskets and flowers over the past months (I also just received bags of M&M candies with "James Rocks" printed on them and am currently nursing an overly yummified stomach).

That said, you know I’m going to show you the poll results, but before I do, I just want to say: These are the real numbers. No cheating. No tinkering. So, any of you still harboring conspiracy theories from our Save One Show poll can rest assured.

More than 36,000 of you voted, and you said these are the top 10 characters you’d most like to see in a Whedonverse spinoff:

1. Spike (James Marsters) 42%
2. Faith (Eliza Dushku) 21%
3. Willow (Alyson Hannigan) 8%
4. Illyria (Amy Acker) 6%
5. Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) 5%
6. Xander (Nicholas Brendon) 4%
7. Wesley (Alexis Denisof) 3%
8. Connor (Vincent Kartheiser) 2%
9. Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter) 2%
10. Tara (Amber Benson) 1%

Anya (Emma Caulfield) also earned one percent, but garnered fewer votes than Tara; and Lorne (Andy Hallett), Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg), the Geek Trio (Danny Strong, Tom Lenk and Adam Busch) and Gunn (J. August Richards) all pulled in less than one percent of the total.

Meanwhile, James is waiting (as I mentioned a couple weeks back when we posted the poll), ready and willing to do anything Spike-alicious as long as it’s within the next five years); Eliza Dushku is also free (even though Tru Calling came back this week, it’s still officially canceled): Alyson Hannigan is bouncing from show to pilot to pilot and, clearly, looking for a permanent home; and Amy—even though she’s a new mother and was recently cast in a CBS pilot—should be easy enough for Joss to wrangle, since she’s invited to Sunday night Shakespeare readings at his house.

So, after Serenity hits the big screen, we can only presume (with fingers and toes and eyeballs crossed) that the Whedonverse will swing back into action with a spinoff, telepic or movie, starring one Mr. James Marsters (among others, naturally).

Pretty please, Joss? With extra-delicious M&M sprinkles on top?