James Marsters played Spike for seven years across Buffy and Angel, and nearly two decades later, he’s still finding ways back into the role, most recently through an audio drama that reunited him with half the original cast.
Still Finding His Way Back to Spike
Marsters has never fully left Sunnydale behind. In 2023, he reprised “Spike for Slayers: A Buffyverse Story,” an audio drama series that also brought back Charisma Carpenter, Emma Caulfield Ford, Anthony Head, and Juliet Landau.
He’s also stayed a fixture on the convention circuit worldwide, from Comic Con Manchester to Motor City Comic Con, where fans consistently point to him as one of the most generous, talkative guests on the panel circuit, not just someone signing autographs and moving on.
What He’s Doing Now
His biggest current project is “Isla Monstro,” an animated sci-fi film where he voices a character named Reggie, alongside Will Friedle and John DiMaggio. He’s also returned to audiobook work, narrating installments in Cassandra Clare’s Shadowhunters universe.
Long before either of those, Marsters built a substantial career in voice work generally, most notably as the villain Zamasu across the “Dragon Ball Super anime and its related video games, a role that’s made him a genuine favorite in anime fandom circles separate from his Buffy following entirely.
Life Off-Screen
Marsters has been married twice, first to Liane Davidson from 1989 to 1997, and later to Patricia Rahman from 2011 to 2021. He and Davidson have one son together, Sullivan, born in 1996. Sullivan grew up to become a musician in his own right, and the two have performed and recorded together for years as part of Marsters’ band, “Ghost of the Robot,” turning what started as James’s own music project into something of a family act. Marsters is also the legal guardian of his niece, quietly extending his role as a parent beyond his own son.
When Angel wrapped in 2004, Marsters marked the end of seven years as Spike by having his famously bleached hair shaved off live on television, donating it to charity in the process, a fittingly theatrical way to close out a role that had defined him for most of his thirties. Outside the spotlight, he’s talked about being someone who’d rather spend a free afternoon with a guitar, a paintbrush, or a football game on than chasing the next premiere.
Outside the spotlight, he’s talked about being someone who’d rather spend a free afternoon with a guitar, a paintbrush, or a football game on than chasing the next premiere.
Where Else to Watch Him
If Spike’s chaotic energy is what you’re after, Marvel’s “Runaways” gave Marsters a substantial three-season run as Victor Stein, a role with its own dark, complicated edges.
For fans who followed him into Angel, “Torchwood” cast him as the recurring Captain John Hart opposite John Barrowman, a character he’s continued voicing in Torchwood audio dramas well after the TV series ended.
And if animation is more your speed, “Dragon Ball Super” remains his most widely watched role by sheer numbers, with Zamasu ranking among the more memorable villains in the franchise for longtime anime fans.
Marsters also reunited with fellow Buffy alum Charisma Carpenter years later, guest starring together as a pair of centuries-old married witches in a 2011 episode of “Supernatural,” playing off their old Buffy chemistry in a genre that clearly still suits both of them.
Spike began as a villain who wasn’t supposed to last a season and ended as one of the Buffyverse’s most beloved characters. James Marsters has spent the years since proving that the same mix of menace, humor, and surprising warmth wasn’t limited to Sunnydale.
All seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel are available for streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.
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