Buffy the Vampire Slayer has been beloved by queer fans since the show premiered in the ‘90s. The iconic teen monster-of-the-week show took the campy movie it was based on and turned it into a coming-of-age story that explored queerness with characters who felt othered, had to hide their identities, and created a loving found family.
And then there was the groundbreaking kiss between Willow and Tara, who represented the first sapphic relationship between two series regular characters on U.S. television.
So it’s no wonder that LGBTQ+ fans got excited last year when it was announced that Hulu would be rebooting the show. Unfortunately, that dream quickly fell apart this week when original star Sarah Michelle Gellar let fans know the show had been canceled. “I am really sad to have to share this, but I wanted you all to hear it from me,” she said in an Instagram video. “Unfortunately, Hulu has decided not to move forward with Buffy: New Sunnydale.”
Since the ax was dropped, rumors have abounded about why the show was canceled, the script for the pilot was leaked, and Gellar has placed the blame squarely at one person’s feet.
What is the 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' reboot?
Gellar planned to reprise her role in the rebooted Buffy: New Sunnydale, but instead of focusing on an older and wiser Buffy Summers, the new show would follow a new Slayer, a 16-year-old bookish introvert named Nova, played by Ryan Kiera Armstrong.
The series was set to be helmed by Hamnet director Chloé Zhao and would introduce a whole new cast of characters to inhabit the world originally created by Joss Whedon.
The show was canceled before the entire first season could be shot, but they did film the pilot episode, which was written and produced by Nora and Lilla Zuckerman.
According to Variety, Nora’s dad was a photojournalist who moved the family around a lot after Nora was kidnapped as a child, before settling them in Sunnydale where the soon-to-be Slayer befriends her own Scooby Gang. The revival show would start with a “Vampire Weekend” fair to celebrate the town’s history and all of the vampires that Buffy dusted rise from the dead once again.
Gellar had a one-line cameo in the pilot, which ended with Buffy getting an email about shenanigans afoot in Sunnyvale that implies the OG Slayer will return to train Nora.
"I'm sure many of you have already heard the news by now," Armstrong told her fans Instagram, who were excited to see the young star lead the rebooted series. "But I wanted to come on here and say thank you for all of the support that you guys have given me and this show throughout the past couple months. It's been really special.”
She added, "I'm really proud of what we did. I'm sad that you guys won't be able to see it, but it doesn't take away from the amazing experience that I had.”
Why was the 'Buffy' reboot canceled?
In an interview with People, Gellar said she got the news that the show had been killed while she was at SXSW promoting her new film, Ready or Not 2. "I was just about to take the stage in front of all the fans ... [when] Hulu had decided not to move forward with the Buffy revival,” she said. “Let me tell you, nobody saw this coming.”
Gellar laid the blame at the feet of an unnamed Hulu executive who wasn’t familiar with the original show.
"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 said. “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."
Multiple outlets, including the Hollywood Reporter, later confirmed that the executive was Disney Television Group president Craig Erwich.
While Gellar said that she only agreed to come on board once Zhao helped her understand the vision for the show, Variety claimed the series may have been canceled because Zhao’s version of the Buffy universe wasn’t mainstream enough for the streaming giant. The article said that Zhao’s Oscar-winning talents as a director didn’t work in a TV context.
Variety also cited sources close to the show who claim that the Zuckermans’ rewrite of the pilot was “unsalvageable,” that executives felt it wouldn’t meet the high expectations of fans, and that they didn’t want to keep “throwing good money after bad.”
What else is Sarah Michelle Gellar saying about the reboot?
Speaking to People, Gellar voiced her disappointment that the project was shelved, “Chloé and I are feeling the same things. Disappointment. We don’t want to let the fans down.”
Gellar also told Page Six Radio that she hopes the pilot they filmed never leaks because they made it to get to know the new characters, but that it was a “learning tool” and not a finished product.
"I know I've seen a version of the script out there. It's not actually correct. That stuff is really unfortunate,” she said. "And I ask fans, if you see scripts, if you see [the pilot] leaked, don't watch it because you're not getting our visions and all of that. You know what? There's two things you can do if you want to make this right right now ... you can go stream Buffy, go watch it. Go see [Ready or Not 2]. Like, go buy a ticket. That's what you can do right now. That's all we can do."
What is director Chloé Zhao saying?
Zhao broke her silence on the cancellation on the red carpet at the 2026 Academy Awards, where she was nominated for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for Hamnet.
“I had an incredible, incredible time with Sarah [Michelle Gellar], with all the cast and crew doing this. And we, first and foremost, see ourselves as the guardians of the original show,” Zhao said, per Us Weekly. “Our priority for Sarah and for us has always been to be truthful to the show, to be truthful to our fans. So, things happen for a reason, and we keep our hearts open, and we welcome the mystery, and what this might lead us to.”
Could the Buffy reboot still air elsewhere?
Fans who are hoping the spiked reboot might land at another streamer are likely to be disappointed. Hulu and Disney own the original Buffy intellectual property, according to People.
"As it stands today, it can't go elsewhere," a source told the magazine. "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."
