Joss Whedon, whose Buffy the Vampire Slayer took home the Saturn Award for best network television series, told SCI FI Wire that he will move production to England for the seventh-season premiere episode. "I am going to England ... in a couple of weeks to shoot some second-unit with Tony [Head, who plays Giles,] and Alyson [Hannigan, who plays Willow,] for the season premiere of Buffy," Whedon told reporters after receiving his award June 10 in Los Angeles. "So that'll be fun. Our first production values ever. We're very excited. Usually it's 'So we're in Venice. Hand me that goblet.' So it's a thing."

As for next year's storyline for the UPN series, Whedon remained coy, but promised a change from this year's dark themes. "I can only tell you a little bit," he said. "This is something I've been sort of gearing towards since the very beginning of the show. It's a question of bringing it onto a much larger scale and at the same time making it much more personal and much more personal to Buffy herself. This year was a chance to let the other characters [shine.] ... The big climactic scene [was] between Xander and Willow, and that was because, as characters and as actors, they'd earned that opportunity. And I thought it was right for them to sort of be the spokespeople for what was going on at the end there. But next year Buffy will be much less peripheral to the climax. The climax will be the biggest thing we've ever done."

Whedon added, "You know, every year it might be the end. Except, actually, this year. This year I really did sort of leave it up in the air. You could have said this could have been an end, but the [cliffhanger] with Spike and the thing on Angel, this was sort of the exception to the rule. But I am looking for closure next year in way because we're making a more positive statement. This year was just about surviving the year. Sometimes the audience felt that actually it's their chore too. What? You don't want to be depressed all the time like me? I don't understand. But next year is something that's a lot more positive and definitive. And in that it has to end with an exclamation point, not a question mark."