Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans were gutted when actress Sarah Michelle Gellar revealed that the planned reboot of her ’90s hit was not moving forward—and she’s ready to point the finger.
Gellar, who played Buffy Summers on the series for seven seasons from 1997 to 2003, said there was “one executive” in particular who tanked it. “No one saw this coming,” she told People.
The ’90s series follows Buffy, a teen chosen by supernatural forces to save the world from vampires—the hotbed for which Buffy and her friends live on top of, in their spooky town of Sunnydale.
Oscar-winning director Chloé Zhao, who attended the Oscars again on Sunday for her nominated film Hamnet, directed the reboot’s pilot, titled New Sunnydale, and convinced Gellar to return for the series reprisal.
Gellar said she received the bad news just as she was stepping on stage for the premiere of her new film, Ready or Not 2. “And it’s also the weekend of Chloé going to the Oscars as a best director nominee for Hamnet,” she added. “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 is...” Gellar trailed off, “That says something.”
Last May, Gellar filmed the viral moment she told Firestarter actress Ryan Kiera Armstrong that she had been cast as the new “slayer.” Zhao and Gellar had discussed the project publicly for months, both before and after. “I’d like to use this moment also to say that Ryan Kiera Armstrong is a superstar,” Gellar told People. “I’m gutted that no one will see her as a slayer.”
The star, who received a Daytime Emmy Award for her role on All My Children, then revealed how one executive tanked the project.
“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 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,” Gellar added.
Deadline reported that the alleged executive who passed on the reboot was Disney Television Group President Craig Erwich, based on multiple sources. The streamer thought the series “played too young,” according to the site, and passed even after rewrites produced a darker, more adult tone.
The original series also starred David Boreanaz, whose character spun off into the solo series Angel, which ran for five seasons, along with Alyson Hannigan, Nicholas Brendon, and Anthony Head. Over the 20-plus years since the series’ 2003 finale, the show remains one of the most influential cult hits in television history, spawning academic courses, an official comic-book continuation, and a devoted global fanbase.
On Sunday, Gellar told disappointed fans, “If the apocalypse actually comes, you can still beep me.”
20th Television owns Buffy‘s IP, so it is possible that another take on the story will move forward at Disney-owned Hulu in the future.
