Sarah Michelle Gellar points the finger over Buffy revival cancellation: ‘Nobody saw this coming’

With OG slayer Sarah Michelle Gellar and Oscar-winning filmmaker Chloe Zhao involved, you might have assumed the Buffy revival was a done deal.

It was not.

The project had been in development for a year, and had shot a pilot, but over the weekend, Gellar revealed the mooted revival had been killed. In a social media video, she told fans that Hulu had decided to not move forward.

Now, in an interview to promote her latest film, Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, Gellar has pointed to a specific reason – or specific person – behind why Buffy won’t be picking up that wooden stake again.

“Let me tell you, nobody saw this coming,” she told People. “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.

“That’s very hard when you’re taking a project that is as beloved as Buffy, not just to the world, but to me and Chloe. So that tells you the uphill battle that we had been fighting since day one, when your executive is literally proud to tell you he didn’t watch it.”

Gellar didn’t name the executive but The Hollywood Reporter said its sources pointed to Craig Erwich, the president of the Disney Television Group.

The revival had been written by Nora and Lilla Zuckerman, and Zhao had directed the pilot. Gellar reprised her role as Buffy Summers, but the show would’ve centred on a new generation vampire slayer, played by Ryan Kiera Armstrong (The Lowdown, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew).

Gellar called Armstrong a “superstar”, and that she had loved the story’s “duality that we had this new, younger slayer who was where Buffy was when the show started, and then we would pick up with where Buffy was now”.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer was originally a 1992 movie which starred Kristy Swanson as a teenage demon hunter tasked with killing vampires and holding back the waves of the undead which threatened humanity.

It was revived as a TV series in 1997 by the film’s screenwriter Joss Whedon, a third-generation Hollywood scribe.

The show recast with Gellar in the title role, and shifted the story from Los Angeles to the fictional town of Sunnydale, which allowed the narrative to introduce an ensemble of new characters and actors, including Anthony Head as Giles, Buffy’s mentor, Alyson Hannigan and Nicholas Brendon as Willow and Xander, her fellow outcast friends, Charisma Carpenter as mean girl Cordelia, and David Boreanaz as Angel, a mysterious vampire with a soul who became her love interest.

The show was initially a cult hit, beloved by young audiences who related to a teen girl hero who cared about saving the world as well as fashion and school dances, and the series’ metaphor of “high school as hell”, and later became a defining aspect of 1990s pop culture which influenced a raft of female-led action narratives as well as a wave of supernatural stories.

It ran for seven seasons, adding cast members including Seth Green, Amber Benson, Emma Caulfield, Eliza Dushku, James Marsters, Michelle Trachtenberg and Marc Blucas, and spun off the character of Angel into his own five-season show.

Gellar said she had been repeatedly asked since the series end in 2003 to revisit the character in some form but had never been convinced there was the correct vision for it – until she met Zhao.

“It never occurred to me that it was something I was going to do,” she told People. “Then four years ago, Chloe, the witch that she is – and I say that as a good thing – comes into my life.

“In one meeting, she makes me say ‘yes’ to something I never saw on my radar. That was because of the deep love and commitment and passion she had for this character. It was like I was stepping back in time.”

There had been previous failed attempts to resurrect the Buffyverse including an animated series, a Giles-centric spin-off, a Faith-centric spin-off, and a reboot from Lost and Fringe writer Monica Owusu-Breen.

After the original show ended, Whedon continued the story in canonical comic books that took it as far as a theoretical 12th season.

But the previously revered Whedon is now a problematic figure for Buffy’s legacy.

In 2017, Whedon’s ex-wife, Kai Cole, went public with accusations that he had multiple affairs during their marriage with people involved with his shows and with fans, and called him a hypocrite because he had built his career on espousing feminist beliefs.

This was followed in 2020 by actor Ray Fisher, who had worked with Whedon on the Justice League movie. He alleged Whedon had shown “gross, abusive, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable” behaviour towards cast and crew. Fisher was backed by co-stars Jason Momoa and Gal Gadot.

Fisher’s public accusations prompted Carpenter to reveal that Whedon had been “casually cruel” and fired her from Angel after she gave birth.

In the fallout, during which Benson and Trachtenberg also alleged toxic experiences on the Buffy set, Gellar herself posted, “While I am proud to have my name associated with Buffy Summers, I don’t want to be forever associated with the name Joss Whedon”.

In a 2022 interview with New York magazine, he denied Gadot’s allegation he had threatened to ruin her career, said Fisher was acting in bad faith, and that he was perhaps “not mannerly” with Carpenter.

When Benson released an audiobook continuation of the Buffy story in 2023, it had Whedon’s permission but not his involvement.

This version of the Buffy revival might be dead and buried, but another sequel of a Whedon project is moving ahead, again, with his blessing but no active involvement.

Firefly, a beloved 2002 sci-fi show which was cancelled after one season, will return as an animated series set between the show’s timeline and the 2005 movie, Serenity.

Nathan Fillion is spearheading the series through his production company, and will voice lead character Mal Reynolds, along with cast members Alan Tudyk, Gina Torres, Morena Baccarin, Jewel Staite, Summer Glau, Sean Maher and Adam Baldwin.