Actress Sarah Michelle Gellar revealed the Buffy Reboot is dead in an interview for her next film, Ready or Not 2 : Here I Come, and she said, “nobody saw this coming”.
The Buffy Reboot has been a hot topic since the announcement that Buffy Summers would be returning to the small screen, with Sarah Michelle Gellar set to reprise the iconic role. To the actress’s surprise, she was told the Buffy Reboot would, in fact, not be moving forward at Searchlight Pictures, while she was at the SXSW Film & TV Festival premiere for her film Ready or Not 2: Here I Come (another Searchlight Pictures production).
Gellar revealed this occurrence in an interview with People, saying she and everyone else involved with the production were completely blindsided by the revelation. Gellar said the timing was also on point, as the revelation came to her by a phone call, right as she was set to hit the stage “in front of all the fans,” on Sunday afternoon. The Buffy Reboot was confirmed in February 2025, and since then, Gellar and Oscar-winning director Chloé Zhao have been working on the revival for Hulu and Searchlight Television.
Gellar says “I’ve been asked since the day I left to return to Sunnydale,” adding, “four years ago, Chloé, 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.”
The series was set to focus on an upcoming slayer played by Ryan Kiera Armstrong (who is supposed to be where Buffy was at the beginning of Buffy the Vampire Slayer), and Gellar was set to reprise her role as Buffy to play the role of mentor.
Gellar mentioned the timing as suspicious, saying, “No one saw this coming, including the head of Searchlight [Pictures],” adding the timing of the death knell for the show couldn’t have come at a worse time for both Gellar and Zhao. Gellar was set to take the stage celebrating her new film, and it’s the same weekend as Zhao’s Oscars appearance as a best director nominee for Hamnet. Gellar says, “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.”
Gellar continued by saying an unnamed executive would constantly go out of their way to boast how they’re not only not a fan of the original Buffy series, but that it “wasn’t for him.” The only confirmation that has been made is the Buffy Reboot is now not moving forward at Hulu, and that’s bound to hurt fans.
In an interview with CGMagazine back in March 2025, actor James Marsters (who played Spike on Buffy the Vampire Slayer) said, “I think the world needs Buffy. I’m glad she’s going to come back and help,” but now that comeback has been put on ice.
Searchlight Pictures has not made any comments yet on the Buffy Reboot at the time of writing.
