SANTA MONICA, Calif. - Anthony Stewart Head was coy when asked if his character, Rupert Giles, survives "Buffy the Vampire Slayer's" final episode later this month.

"Well, I can't tell you that," Head told The Associated Press with a laugh. "Maybe, maybe not. The bottom line, as we know with any of (creator) Joss (Whedon's) characters, you can't say, 'You must survive if you're going to come back and do your own series.' Who knows, Giles could come back as a ghost. So, there are no guarantees of anybody's survival."

Head said as the show has progressed, Giles has become less of an authority figure for Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar), who has the power to slay vampires.

"Giles and Buffy are completely at odds and basically it's the end of the teacher-student relationship," Head said. "It's when the student finally walks away from the teacher. There's not really anything the teacher specifically can teach her."

Head said Whedon plans to bring back Giles and other characters in some form after the series ends.

"He'd been going backwards and forwards about whether it was going to be like a pilot or whether it would be six one-hour shows," Head said. "Now he's back to the idea of doing a two-hour movie, a TV movie. Because he'd like to develop a character and have it character-driven rather than finding out who is the baddy and chasing after the baddy, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera."

Head, who called the final episode "just huge," said it's been a fantastic run.

"The bottom line about Joss is he, he's always played with the medium, he's always stretched the boundaries," Head said. "He's never satisfied to sort of churn regular TV out. It's always been interesting and exciting."

The series' finale airs May 20 on UPN.