BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER Reboot in the Works at Hulu

Melody McCune

Still of Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers

Highlights

  • We learned that a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot is in development at Hulu. Star Sarah Michelle Gellar is poised to reprise her role as the titular Slayer. 
  • Chloé Zhao, who won an Oscar for Best Director for 2020’s Nomadland, will be at the helm for the pilot episode. 
  • Nora and Lilla Zuckerman will pen said pilot episode. They’re executive producers for Peacock’s Poker Face and also wrote Season 1’s penultimate episode, “Escape from Shit Mountain,” together.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Slays Again

If the Buffy the Vampire Slayer theme song by Nerf Herder isn’t blaring in your head upon reading this news, are you really the Chosen One? As for us, we’re busting out our stakes and Sunnydale High gear in celebration of Hulu developing a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot. 

Sarah Michelle Gellar, who starred in the cult classic ’90s series as Buffy Summers, will return to headline as the titular Slayer. Gellar is in the negotiation stages. As of writing, we don’t know if the rest of the main cast will reprise their respective roles.

Filmmaker Chloé Zhao will board the project to direct the pilot. Zhao won an Academy Award for her directorial work on 2020’s Nomadland. She was at the helm of Marvel’s Eternals in 2021. Her upcoming credits include the highly anticipated Hamnet, starring Paul Mescal as William Shakespeare and Jessie Buckley as Agnes. She’ll also direct an untitled Bass Reeves project and a Dracula adaptation.

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Nora and Lilla Zuckerman have signed on to write the pilot. They are most known for executive producing Peacock’s Poker Face, which stars Natasha Lyonne. The Zuckerman sisters also penned the first season’s penultimate episode, “Escape from Shit Mountain.” Their other credits include the police procedural Prodigal Son, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.SuitsHaven and Fringe

Are You Ready to Be Strong?

Deadline reports the reboot will serve as “the next chapter in the Buffyverse.” Gellar, Zhao and the Zuckerman sisters will executive produce alongside the original series’ executive producers, Gail Berman, Fran Kuzui and Kaz Kuzui. Dolly Parton, whose company Sandollar produced the ’90s show, will return to executive produce the reboot pilot. The writers’ room is purported to open soon.

In 2018, news broke that a reboot from Monica Owusu-Breen, the creator of Midnight, Texas, and Buffy creator Joss Whedon was in the works. Ultimately, it didn’t move past the development stage. In 2021, Whedon vanished from the public eye following abuse allegations. He’s not involved with the current reboot.

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer premiered on March 10, 1997, on The WB. After 144 episodes, it ended its seven-season run on UPN on May 20, 2003. In addition to Gellar, the series starred Alyson Hannigan, Nicholas Brendon, James Marsters, Michelle Trachtenberg, Emma Caulfield and Anthony Stewart-Head. A spinoff series, Angel, starring David Boreanaz as the titular vampire with a soul, aired from October 5, 1999, to May 19, 2004, on The WB. 

How do you feel about a Buffy reboot? Would you like to see the original cast return? Sound off in the comments below. 

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Melody McCune
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