After Sarah Michelle Gellar confirmed she’s reprising her role as Buffy Summers, she’s slaying disinformation about the highly-anticipated reboot.
The actress and producer recently debunked “fake characters” and other details that circulated online in March about her upcoming Hulu revival of Buffy the Vampire Slayerwhich hails from 2x Oscar winner Chloé Zhao.
“Those are all fake characters. That thing that got released is all fake,” Gellar told Elite Daily of previous reports that the series will center on “a cerebral 16-year-old named Nova … who is very smart and a bit of a loner,” as well as her friends “Hugo, an out-and-proud nerd who comes from money, and Gracie, a young expert on vampires who’s an acolyte of Gellar’s Buffy.”
Although Gellar wouldn’t confirm any actual details about the reboot, she explained how Zhao convinced her to return to the franchise after years of shutting down rumors and speculation.
“Every pitch I heard was just like, ‘Let’s just do Buffy again.’ Why? But the passion that [Zhao] came to me with, what she wanted to do with the show and the character, and why Buffy is needed now — it was the first time where I thought, ‘OK, there’s a reason,’” said Gellar.
The cast of ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’ (Online USA)
Online USA via Getty
Like the original series, which ran for seven seasons on The WB from 1997 to 2003, Gellar said the reboot will continue to champion LGBTQ characters and other outsiders.
“The whole point of an antihero is to be a hero for the people who don’t fit in the box, the people who aren’t like everybody else,” she explained. “That’s who I want to tell stories for: the person that really looks to these stories to feel a connection.”
Noting the reboot has been in the works for “three-and-a-half, maybe four years now,” Gellar assured, “We won’t do it unless it’s 100% right and there’s 100% a reason.”
In February, Deadline reported that the Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot has neared a pilot order from Hulu, with Gellar expected to reprise her eponymous role in the Zhao-directed pilot, written by Nora and Lilla Zuckerman.
Along with producers Gellar, Zhao and the Zuckermans, Dolly Parton is returning as an executive producer on the series after producing the original under her Sandollar banner.
Buffy creator Joss Whedon, who also wrote the 1992 movie the series was based on, has no involvement in the reboot. He has not worked in Hollywood in any official capacity since facing a slew of misconduct allegations in 2021.
