Sarah Michelle Gellar Reveals How The Buffy Reboot Cancellation Went Down
Image: Image: Buffy The Vampire Slayer
After the news broke last week that Buffy The Vampire Slayer: New Sunnydale had been cancelled, Sarah Michelle Gellar has spoken out about what went down behind the scenes.
The star of the original hit series revealed she got the phone call as she was about to take to the stage at the SXSW Film & TV Festival.
While fans are still hoping to see the show find new life elsewhere Gellar revealed if that is possible.
“Nobody saw this coming” Buffy The Vampire Slayer reboot cancelled
Last week Sarah Michelle Gellar took to Instagram to share with her fans that Buffy The Vampire Slayer: New Sunnydale would not be proceeding.
With the pilot having already filmed fans were frothing to see the reboot, billed by many as a continuation of the original series.
“Unfortunately Hulu has decided not to move forward with Buffy: New Sunnydale” Gellar said in her video.
However she revealed very few details about just why it was not proceeding.
In an interview with People this week, she has revealed just what went down.
“I was just about to take the stage in front of all the fans,” she told the publication.
“Hulu had decided not to move forward with the Buffy revival. Let me tell you, nobody saw this coming.”
Gellar gushed about the time she spent working on the pilot for the new show.
“The dialogue flew off the tongue. When I was on set, it was craziness. It was like, ‘Oh, we’re here. We’re doing this.’” she said.
“I loved the duality that we had this new, younger slayer who was where Buffy was when the show started, and then we would pick up with where Buffy was now.”
Of the cancellation she said “No one saw this coming, including the head of Searchlight [Pictures].”
“I got the call as we were stepping onto stage for the premiere of their own movie. And it’s also the weekend of Chloé going to the Oscars as a best director nominee for Hamnet“ she revealed.
“For them to call us on the Friday of what should have been Chloé’s victory lap for an incredible film, and my world premiere of something that I worked very hard for is…”
“That says something.”
But just who was behind the cancellation?
Gellar wasn’t pointing fingers, but she revealed that one executive working on the project appeared to be battling the reboot from the inside.
“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” she revealed.
“That’s very hard when you’re taking a property that is as beloved as Buffy, not just to the world, but to me and Chloé. So that tells you the uphill battle that we had been fighting since day one, when your executive is literally proud to tell you that he didn’t watch it.”
Gellar maintained her sadness and disappointment over the decision, knowing the weight of the fandom she wore for her time in the iconic role.
“Chloé and I are feeling the same things. Disappointment. We don’t want to let the fans down. That hurts. Saddened at how it was handled and when it was handled.”
“But I just said to Chloé, and I was very specific, I said, ‘Sunday night, you put that crown on and you walk that red carpet and you take in all that love for what you worked for and forget the other stuff.’ It’s important to me that this doesn’t take away from what we achieved and what she’s achieved. And there’s always so more to do.”
But what future does the reboot hold now that the pilot has been filmed and shelved? Gellar reveals that despite the hopes of fans for now, it remains in one place.
“Disney owns the IP. As it stands today, it can’t go elsewhere.”
“But that doesn’t mean the team behind the reboot, including Sarah and Chloé, Nora and Lilla Zuckerman [the screenwriters and executive producers], can’t take their talent and ideas elsewhere.”
In a separate interview with SiriusXM’s Page Six Radio this week Gellar also encouraged fans to stay away from potentially leaked scripts online.
Naturally fans are scrambling to find any pieces of information about the reboot they can, with rumours that a leaked script from the reboot is circulating online. While there was no confirmation it was circulation, Gellar said she hopes it doesn’t surface.
“I actually hope it doesn’t because then everyone’s going to have an opinion on this and that, and pilots are not finished,” she said.
“It wasn’t done, right? It’s not like we did a season, finished it, and then they shelved it. It’s not like when they made the Batgirl movie and didn’t release it. That movie was finished.”
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