‘BUFFY” fans have a reason to celebrate – their hero, executive producer Joss Whedon, is back at work.
Production began this week in Los Angeles on the first episode of his new series, “Doll- house,” which reunites him with Eliza Dushku, beloved in the “Buffy” fan community – known as the “Buffyverse” – for playing the role of Faith in both “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Angel.”
Fans of those shows revere Whedon, who created them both. They are eagerly awaiting the arrival of “Dollhouse,” for which Fox has ordered seven episodes. The network won’t say whether the drama series will premiere this summer or next fall.
Whedon, 43, wrote the first episode and is also busy directing it this week and next. He was unavailable to speak to The Post, but he described the fanciful series in an interview with eonline.com last November, before the writers strike.
“The idea is [that] those with the money or connections can access this secret, highly illegal facility where they can basically fulfill their greatest fantasies,” Whedon said.
The facility, known as the Dollhouse, is populated by people “programmed” to “become the person you want them to be,” Whedon said. “They don’t [merely] act like that person, they are not a robot pretending, they become that person, and then they forget all about it.”
Dushku, 27, plays Echo, one of the fantasy figures. “The problem is that the character of Echo . . . stops forgetting,” Whedon said. “She doesn’t completely remember, but she does realize she is a person, and that she might have been a person before she did this.”
Also starring in “Dollhouse” are Tahmoh Penikett (Lt. “Halo” Agathon on “Battlestar Galactica“), Fran Kranz (Josh Flug on “Welcome to the Captain“), Enver Gjokaj and Dichen Lachman.
Gjokaj and Lachman play other “dolls,” Kranz plays the guy who “programs” them, and Penikett plays an FBI agent who tries to prove the existence of the Dollhouse.
Dushku’s last series was the short-lived “Tru Calling,” in which she played a morgue attendant named Tru who had the ability to talk to corpses.
Whedon most recently directed two episodes of “The Office.”