Sarah Michelle Gellar has revealed her shock at Hulu's decision to cancel the planned Buffy the Vampire Slayer sequel series, blaming an executive who was “proud” to have never seen the original show.
The actress, speaking at the SXSW Film & TV Festival in Austin, Texas, said she received the call about the cancellation just as she was about to step on stage for the premiere of her film Ready or Not 2. “Nobody saw this coming,” she told People magazine, adding that the timing was particularly poor as it coincided with director Chloé Zhao’s Oscar nomination for Hamnet.
Gellar singled out a Hulu executive 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 described this as an “uphill battle” from the start, given the beloved status of the original show.
The sequel, which was to be directed by Zhao and written by Nora and Lilla Zuckerman, would have followed a new slayer played by Ryan Kiera Armstrong, with Gellar returning as Buffy in a recurring role. However, a source confirmed that Disney owns the IP, meaning the project cannot currently move to another platform.
Zhao, speaking on the Oscars red carpet, said she was “not surprised” by the decision but remained philosophical: “Things happen for a reason, and we keep our hearts open and welcome the mystery.” Gellar assured fans that the legacy of the original series remains untouched.
