Courtesy of 20th Century Studios
If I were to walk out into the street right now and throw a bulb of garlic, odds are I’d hit a Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan. Everyone knows of the mega-popular series about a young woman named Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) who is tasked with killing bloodsuckers. The show ran for seven seasons between 1997-2003, turned Buffy into a pop-culture icon and made SMG a star.
So, it was no surprise when it was announced that a reboot (dubbed Buffy the Vampire Slayer: New Sunnydale) would be coming to Hulu. What was surprising was that Gellar would be reprising her role as the titular vampire hunter. It became clear then that the series is aiming to appeal to fans both old and new…something that SMG recently highlighted for Vanity Fair.
When asked about the Buffy reboot, Sarah Michelle Gellar revealed that it, “Is coming from the true fan that is desperate to revisit the world, not reinvent“. That should be music to the ears of anyone who grew up watching SMG slay.
The comments regard executive producer Chloé Zhao, one of those fans who was raised by the show. Previously, Gellar hadn’t been keen on returning to Buffy. And then Zhao came along. “That is all credit to the visionary Chloé is,” Gellar told Vanity Fair. She went on to say that Zhao has, “an international eye which broadens the scope of what we can achieve.”
Courtesy of 20th Century Studios
Zhao added, “No one knows Buffy better than Sarah Michelle Gellar…and that’s why I couldn’t do it unless she felt like we should…The way the fans commune around her, that’s the energy we’re trying to bring out onto a small screen again.”
I think we can all agree that if the new Buffy can capture even an ounce of the magic of the original series, we’ll all be in for a treat worth biting into.
Details on the reboot are scarce at the moment. We believe that Ryan Kiera Armstrong (Firestarter) will be playing the new slayer who Buffy is tasked with training.
Other announced cast members include Chase Sui Wonders (I Know What You Did Last Summer), Faly Rakotohavana (Nightmare Cinema), Ava Jean (Law & Order: SVU), Sarah Bock (Severance), Daniel Di Tomasso (Grimm) and Jack Cutmore-Scott (Oppenheimer).
Nora and Lilla Zuckerman (Poker Face) wrote the pilot, with Chloé Zhao directing.
Stay tuned at Dread Central for more details as we learn them.
