Faith is a fictional character created by
Joss Whedon for the television series
Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Played by actress
Eliza Dushku, Faith was introduced in the third season of
Buffy and was a focus of that season's overarching plot. She returned for shorter
story arcs on
Buffy and its spin-off,
Angel. The character's story is continued in the comic book series
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, and she also appears in
apocryphal material such as other comic books and novels. Faith was set to receive her own spin-off television series after the final season of
Buffy, but Eliza Dushku declined the offer, and the series was never made. The character later co-stars in the 25-issue comic book
Angel & Faith beginning in August 2011 under the banner of
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine, the story taking place mostly in London and the surrounding area. Seven years after the character's creation, Whedon granted her the surname
Lehane for a
role-playing game and subsequent material. The last issue of
Season Eight was the first source officially confirmed to be canon that referred to Faith by her full name.