Sarah Michelle Gellar declined Chloé Zhao's “Buffy” revival 'many times,' star said just before Hulu scrapped it

Wesley StenzelSat, March 14, 2026 at 6:58 PM UTC

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'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' star Sarah Michelle Gellar in 1999Credit: Getty

Sarah Michelle Gellar took a lot of convincing to return to her vampire-slaying roots.

Just before she announced that Hulu is not moving forward with the upcoming Buffy revival series, The New Sunnydale, the actress revealed that she'd spent years rejecting the chance to reprise her titular role before signing on for a project with a pilot helmed by Oscar-winning auteur Chloé Zhao.

"I actually like when people bring up that I said 'never,' because I really felt that way," she said in a recent interview with ComicBook.com. "So, lesson learned. First of all, young children… Never say never. Say, 'I don't see it happening,' but don't say 'never,' because then you have egg on your face."

Chloé Zhao in Los Angeles on March 7, 2026Credit: Amy Sussman/Getty

Gellar explained that before she agreed to star in The New Sunnydale, she was not at a phase in her life in which she was ready to come back to the world of Buffy. "I truly thought that's where I was at," she said. "I never heard a take or a reason to do it."

Hulu's scrapped Buffy the Vampire Slayer revival, spearheaded by Zhao, was the version that finally persuaded Gellar to plant her stake in another installment of the franchise.

"Then Chloé Zhao came to me, and she had the reasons, and she had the take," she said. "Also, I was in a different place. The world was in a different place. With that being said, it's still taken us four years to get to this place because I would say, 'Yes,' and then I would call a month later and say, 'No. No, no, no. I can't.'"

Gellar noted that follow-up projects can take years to finally enter production, including her new horror sequel, Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, which comes more than six years after 2019's Ready or Not.

"I just asked people to give me the time and understand that it took us six years to get a sequel to Ready or Not," she said. "When you want to do things right, it takes time. Mind you, I also said no to Chloé many times in the beginning as well. Her passion, and her reasoning for wanting to do it, and why now, and why it is necessary."

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Sarah Michelle Gellar in Austin on March 13, 2026Credit: Daniel Boczarski/Getty

Fast forward, and now Gellar has announced that the new iteration of the show is dead at Hulu.

"Unfortunately, Hulu has decided not to move forward with Buffy: New Sunnydale," she said in an Instagram post on Saturday. "I wanna thank Chloé Zhao because I never thought I would find myself back in Buffy's stylish yet affordable boots, and thanks to Chloé, I was reminded of how much I love her and how much she means not only to me, but to all of you."

Gellar previously explained how a meeting with Zhao helped her change her mind about a Buffy revival after producer Gail Berman told her that the Eternals filmmaker was interested in the show.

"I was blown away that Chloé even knew who I was, but, as I've always done, I told Gail that I just didn't see a way for the show to exist again," she recalled in an Instagram post last year. "I eventually agreed to go (mainly just to meet Chloé) and our 20-minute coffee quickly turned into a four-hour adventure. We laughed, we cried, but mostly we both talked about how much this show means to us. While I didn't agree to anything at that meeting, I did shock myself by agreeing to continue the conversation."

The project eventually moved forward in May 2025 when Zhao, Gellar, and their collaborators cast Ryan Kiera Armstrong as a new slayer who would have starred in the show alongside Gellar.

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Shortly after, Gellar teased the tone of the now-shelved revival. "It will be lighter than the last few seasons of the original," Gellar told Vanity Fair. "We will try to find a balance between new and old characters. My dream is to bring back everyone who has died, but space will have to be made for new stories as well."

That dream may not be over: EW has learned that Hulu still loves the idea of bringing Buffy back and is considering how the franchise could continue in another form.

on Entertainment Weekly

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