A sequel reboot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is reportedly in the works, with Sarah Michelle Gellar expected to return to the titular role and the Oscar-winning director Chloé Zhao to direct the pilot episode.
On Tuesday Deadline reported sources close to the project confirming that the streaming service Hulu is “near a pilot order”, with lifelong Buffy fan Zhao onboard to direct the episode, written by the Poker Face writers Nora and Lilla Zuckerman.
The show will be executive produced by none other than Dolly Parton, whose production company Sandollar made the original series. A year ago Parton confirmed the reboot was in the works, saying: “They’re still working on that. They’re thinking about bringing it back and revamping it.”
No other actors from the original series have yet been confirmed to return but the Deadline writer Nellie Andreeva wrote: “Beyond the pilot order, I hear the reboot is starting a writers room soon, a sign that Hulu and the studios have high expectations for the project going to series.”
Andreeva also reported that the Buffy creator Joss Whedon would have no involvement in the reboot, three years after he was accused of misconduct on the sets of numerous projects. Whedon has denied all allegations of threats and cruelty made by several actors including the Buffy actor Charisma Carpenter, who played Cordelia.
A Buffy reboot would be the third series in the “Buffyverse”, coming almost 30 years after Buffy the Vampire Slayer began in 1997 and finished in 2003, and more than 20 years after the spin-off series Angel ended, having run for five seasons between 1999 and 2004.
Gellar has previously been against the idea of a Buffy reboot, saying in 2023: “I am very proud of the show that we created, and [a revival] doesn’t need to be done. We wrapped that up.
“I am all for them continuing the story, because there’s the story of female empowerment … [but] the metaphors of Buffy were the horrors of adolescence. I think I look young but I am not an adolescent.”
But late last year Gellar revealed that she had changed her mind after seeing other successful reboots, saying: “It’s funny, I always used to say no, because it’s in its bubble and it’s so perfect. But watching Sex and the City and seeing Dexter, and realising there are ways to do it, definitely does get your mind thinking, ‘Well, maybe.’”
Deadline reported that negotiations with Gellar for the reboot had begun after these comments became public.
Other shows that have confirmed reboots include Malcolm in the Middle and Scrubs.
