Sarah Michelle Gellar has announced that Hulu will not be moving forward with Buffy: New Sunnydale
Hulu’s mooted reboot of Buffy The Vampire Slayer is not gonna happen. Star Sarah Michelle Gellar took to Instagram on Saturday to inform fans that the series, tentatively titled Buffy: New Sunnydale, was not picked up by the streaming service Hulu.
“I am really sad to have to share this,” Gellar said. “But I wanted you all to hear it from me. Unfortunately, Hulu has decided not to move forward with Buffy: New Sunnydale.“
Originally running from 1997 to 2001, the original Buffy The Vampire series was already a reboot of sorts, being a do-over of the largely disliked 1992 movie starry Kristy Swanson. Announced in February 2025, the new pilot was written by Poker Face veterans Nora and Lilla Zuckerman and directed by Chloé Zhao, whose most recent film, Hamnet, received eight Oscar nominations. It was going to follow Gellar’s Buff Summers as she trained a new Slayer, to be played by Ryan Kiera Armstrong. Faly Rakotohavana, Ava Jean, Sarah Bock, Daniel Di Tomasso and Jack Cutmore-Scott co-starred in the pilot, with Chase Sui Wonders guest starring.
But according to Deadline, insiders at Hulu described the pilot as “not perfect,” and worried that Zhao’s sensibilities were not right for the monster-slayin’ series.
Gellar thanked Zhao, saying, “I never thought I would find myself back in Buffy’s stylish yet affordable boots. And thanks to Chloé, I was reminded how much I love her and how much she means, not only to me, but to all of you. This doesn’t change any of that, and I promise if the apocalypse actually comes… you can still beep me.”
Despite all that, Hulu are still keen to do something with the Buffy property – just not whatever the rejected pilot was. Maybe we missed a masterpiece, maybe we dodged a bullet, but there’ll be more Buffy in the future before long.
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