On Saturday morning, actress Sarah Michelle Gellar posted a video to Instagram announcing that Hulu has decided not to move forward with Buffy the Vampire Slayer: New Sunnydale, the long-awaited revival series that had been in development for over a year.
The caption on the post read: “If the apocalypse comes… you can still beep me.”
“I am really sad to have to share this, but I wanted you all to hear it from me,” Gellar said in the video, visibly emotional.
“Unfortunately, Hulu has decided not to move forward with Buffy: New Sunnydale. I want to thank Chloé Zhao, because I never thought I would find myself back in Buffy’s stylish yet affordable boots. And thanks to Chloé, I was reminded how much I love her and how much she means not only to me but to all of you. And this doesn’t change any of that. And I promise, if the apocalypse actually comes, you can still beep me.”
What The Show Would Have Been
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: New Sunnydale was not a straight reboot.
It was a continuation, a sequel set roughly 25 years after the events of the original series, designed to pass the torch from Gellar’s Buffy Summers to a new generation while keeping the original star central to the story.
Ryan Kiera Armstrong, known for her work in Skeleton Crew, was cast as Nova, the next Slayer in the line.
Gellar was set to reprise Buffy in a recurring capacity, serving as mentor to Armstrong’s character and connecting the new series to the mythology of the original.
The supporting cast included Faly Rakotohavana as Hugo, Ava Jean as Larkin, Sarah Bock as Gracie, Daniel Di Tomasso as Abe, and Jack Cutmore-Scott as Mr. Burke.
Nora and Lilla Zuckerman, the showrunning duo behind Rian Johnson’s acclaimed Poker Face, were attached to write and executive produce.
Chloé Zhao, the Oscar-winning director of Nomadland who most recently directed Hamnet, was set to direct and executive produce the pilot.
Additional executive producers included Gellar, Gail Berman, Fran Kuzui, Kaz Kuzui, and in a detail that delighted fans when it was announced, Dolly Parton. Berman, the Kuzuis, and Parton all served as executive producers on the original series.
The project came from 20th Television and Searchlight TV. Original series creator Joss Whedon was not involved.
Why It Didn’t Work
The pilot was filmed last summer, but sources told Deadline it was described internally as “not perfect.”
The specific issue identified was a creative mismatch, Zhao’s sensibility, which runs lyrical and meditative and earned her an Academy Award for Nomadland, may not have been the ideal fit for Buffy’s particular combination of supernatural horror, sharp wit, and ensemble energy.
Zhao is currently riding a wave of critical acclaim for Hamnet, her acclaimed literary adaptation, which reinforces that she is operating at the height of her powers, just perhaps not in this specific genre.
There had been discussions about reworking the pilot. In the end, Hulu opted not to proceed.
A source close to the project told Variety the decision does not close the door permanently. They said there is “a lot of love” for the Buffy IP at the streamer, and Hulu will consider future iterations. “Basically, the door is still open,” the source said.
Gellar’s Resistance To Return
The story of how Gellar ended up attached to New Sunnydale is itself a years-long saga.
In interviews, she described spending four years saying no, repeatedly and emphatically, before finally being convinced.
“I actually like when people bring up that I said ‘never,’ because I really felt that way,” she said in a previous interview.
She described her decision-making process as essentially being Cameron Frye from Ferris Bueller, repeatedly agreeing, then calling back to say no, then agreeing again.
The person who finally got through to her was Zhao, whose passion for the show and whose specific vision for what New Sunnydale could be convinced Gellar the project was worth the risk.
When the reboot was first announced in February 2025, Gellar wrote to her followers: “
I have always listened to the fans and heard your desire to revisit Buffy and her world, but it was not something I could do unless I was sure we would get it right. This has been a long process, and it’s not over yet.” The announcement broke nearly two decades of the actress firmly closing the door on any return to the role.
The cancellation comes while Gellar is in the middle of the press tour for Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, the sequel to the 2019 horror hit in which she stars alongside Samara Weaving.
The Original Series And What It Meant
Buffy the Vampire Slayer premiered on The WB on March 10, 1997. Created by Joss Whedon and based on his 1992 film of the same name, which starred Kristy Swanson in the title role, the series ran for seven seasons, ending in 2003.
It spawned the spinoff Angel, which ran from 1999 to 2004 on The WB, as well as the comic book continuation that picked up the story after the television series ended.
The show was, at its peak, one of the most critically and culturally significant series on American television a genre series that was simultaneously a coming-of-age story, a feminist text, a monster-of-the-week procedural, and, in its best episodes, genuine high drama.
It launched the careers of Gellar, Alyson Hannigan, Charisma Carpenter, Michelle Trachtenberg, and others.
It produced episodes, Hush, Once More With Feeling, The Body., that are still taught in film and television programs and cited as among the finest individual hours of American television ever made.
Its legacy has been complicated in recent years by allegations of abusive behavior on set by Whedon, which emerged publicly in 2020 and were subsequently described in detail by multiple cast members.
The decision to move forward with New Sunnydale without Whedon’s involvement was widely understood as an attempt to separate the show’s legacy from its creator, to let the world and the characters belong to the people who loved them rather than to the person whose conduct had cast a shadow over them.
What Happens Now
The pilot exists. It was filmed. Whether it ever surfaces as a streaming release, as a proof of concept for another network or platform, or simply as a piece of work that never sees the light of day is not yet known.
There is currently no word on whether New Sunnydale will be shopped to other platforms.
What Hulu has made clear through its sources is that it has not given up on Buffy as a property.
The IP remains valuable, the fanbase remains enormous, and the appetite for a continuation has been demonstrated by the response to every development announcement over the past decade.
The question is what form the next attempt takes, different director, different format, different network, and whether Gellar would be willing to put her boots back on again.
Her sign-off suggests she might. “I promise, if the apocalypse actually comes, you can still beep me.” For fans who have been waiting since 2003, that will have to do for now.
