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Sarah Michelle Gellar boards Buffy the Vampire Slayer Reboot at Hulu

Sarah Michelle Gellar in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
20th Television

Since Buffy the Vampire Slayer concluded in 2003, series lead Sarah Michelle Gellar seemed unwilling to revisit her iconic character. But as recently as last month, Gellar softened her stance towards a potential revival. Now, the word has come down that Gellar has signed on for a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot, which is in the works at Hulu.

According to The Hollywood Reporter , Gellar is currently the only performer attached to the new series, but her character, Buffy Summers, will reportedly not be the main character. Instead, the show is described as “the next chapter in the Buffyverse,” with a new slayer at the forefront.

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The original series was created by Avengers director Joss Whedon. However, Whedon will not be involved with the revival series after facing allegations that he mistreated the female cast members of Buffy and its spinoff, Angel . Those allegations were amplified by an investigation into Whedon’s conduct while directing the Justice League reshoots, and his Hollywood career has been at a standstill since departing HBO’s The Nevers .

Gellar publicly distanced herself from Whedon, as did many of her former co-stars. But for now, it’s unclear if any of the other Buffy or Angel cast members will return for the new show. Poker Face veterans Nora and Lilla Zuckerman are the creators and showrunners of the Buffy reboot, with Eternals director Chloé Zhao slated to helm the project.

Gellar and Zhao will both be executive producers on the project alongside the Zuckermans and Gail Berman, one of the executive producers of the original show. Fran and Kaz Kuzui — producers of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie and the subsequent TV series — will also be attached as producers for this show, as will Dolly Parton through her Sandollar production studio.

Blair Marnell
Blair Marnell has been an entertainment journalist for over 15 years. His bylines have appeared in Wizard Magazine, Geek…
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We’re sure we could debate all day about whether or not Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a superhero show, but if it is, it’s the best one ever. The saga of high school student (and later, college dropout) Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and her double life as the magically empowered Slayer still holds up as one of the great action-adventure series in American TV history. The show broke ground in several ways, including its user of carefully plotted seasonal arcs, its explorations of gender and sexuality, and its unique and quirky dialect.
As Buffy and her best friends Willow (Allyson Hannigan) and Xander (Nicholas Brendan) grew up, so did the series, becoming more emotionally and structurally complicated. It’s a formative text for an entire generation of viewers and storytellers, to the extent that its pervasive influence has actually become a problem. (Must all heroes be superintelligent quip machines?)
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Editor's note: Spoilers ahead.

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