Sarah Michelle Gellar opens up why 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' reboot was canceled
Sarah Michelle Gellar shared more details about why the Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot has been canceled on Hulu.
Gellar, who starred in the original 1997 supernatural horror series, shared that she got the news just before going on stage at the SXSW Film & TV Festival to premiere Ready or Not 2: Here I Come on Friday, March 11.
“I was just about to take the stage in front of all the fans,” Gellar told PEOPLE Magazine. “Hulu had decided not to move forward with the Buffy revival. Let me tell you, nobody saw this coming.”
“No one saw this coming, including the head of Searchlight [Pictures]," she says, noting how she and Oscar-winning director Chloé Zhao have been working on a revival for Hulu and Searchlight Television.
She also criticized the timing of the cancellation, as it came during a moment of major milestones for both her and Zhao.
"And I got the call as we were stepping onto stage for the premiere of their own movie. And it’s also the weekend of Chloé going to the Oscars as a best director nominee for Hamnet. For them to call us on the Friday of what should have been Chloé's victory lap for an incredible film, and my world premiere of something that I worked very hard for. That says something," she told the outlet.
Gellar sharred that an executive, who isn't a "fan" of the series, was the reason for the cancellation of the reboot, Buffy: New Sunnydale.
“We had an executive on our show who was not only not a fan of the original, but was proud to constantly remind us that he had never seen the entirety of the series and how it wasn't for him," she said.
She lamented, "That's very hard when you're taking a property that is as beloved as Buffy, not just to the world, but to me and Chloé. So that tells you the uphill battle that we had been fighting since day one, when your executive is literally proud to tell you that he didn't watch it."
Per PEOPLE, Gellar and Zhao have shot a pilot for a potential full series reboot. It would have returned Gellar’s character and introduced a new slayer, played by Ryan Kiera Armstrong, who was supposed to star alongside her.
“Chloé and I are feeling the same things. Disappointment. We don't want to let the fans down. That hurts. Saddened at how it was handled and when it was handled," Gellar said.
"But I just said to Chloé, and I was very specific, I said, 'Sunday night, you put that crown on and you walk that red carpet and you take in all that love for what you worked for and forget the other stuff.’ It’s important to me that this doesn't take away from what we achieved and what she's achieved. And there's always so more to do," she added.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer centers on Buffy Summers, a seemingly ordinary teenage girl who is chosen to be the latest in a long line of “Slayers” tasked with battling vampires, demons, and other supernatural forces, while also balancing the challenges of everyday life.
Its reboot, Buffy: New Sunnydale, was first announced in February 2025 as a pilot order at Hulu and was set to continue the original series, which ended in 2003 after seven seasons.
Joining Gellar, it would have starred Armstrong as the new slayer, Faly Rakotohavana, Ava Jean, Sarah Bock, Daniel Di Tomasso, Jack Cutmore-Scott, and Kingston Vernes.
On March 15, Gellar took to Instagram to break the news to the fans. She also revealed that she had spent years rejecting offers to reprise her role as Buffy before coming on board with the Hulu series.
"I truly thought that’s where I was at. I never heard a take or a reason to do it. Then Chloé Zhao came to me, and she had the reasons, and she had the take. Also, I was in a different place. The world was in a different place," she said.
