In 1997, ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘ premiered, an original series from The WB that concluded in 2002 after seven long seasons and remains a nostalgic icon today, remembered by fans who watched it at the time and by other viewers who have joined the Buffy Summers craze along the way.
At the beginning of 2025, it was announced that a pilot episode for a new series was in the works, bringing back the character thanks to Hulu and with the same actress who played the lead role in the 90s, Sarah Michelle Gellar. In a new interview given by the actress for the podcast ‘Shut Up, Evan‘, Gellar spoke about the intentions of this continuation.
The project’s name was already known: ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer: New Sunnydale‘. And one of the first things the actress wanted to clarify is that “it won’t be a sequel or a reboot, it’s a continuation” that will reveal Buffy’s current whereabouts.
“Where is Buffy now and what is this world that Buffy lives in, with and without her? So it’s not a reboot, it doesn’t immediately pick up with the same characters, not all of them. It’s not like a sequel… That’s why the name was so important to me: ‘Buffy: New Sunnydale’. It’s Buffy, but it’s also something more.”
Returning to Sunnydale, California
Reprising the role was not an easy decision for Sarah Michelle Gellar. On the contrary, at first she was completely against returning to play the vampire slayer. “I’ll take back what I said and I don’t care, I’ve learned my lesson,” she stated, commenting that from now on she will have to apply the motto “never say never.”
One of the main reasons she hesitated to return to the action was because she didn’t know if the continuation would meet expectations. “I never saw how or why it could be as good (as the original series). I’m not trying to be better. I just want to preserve and honor the memory and what we created. I know that sometimes that memory creates conflict in people about how they should feel about it, but a lot of people put their blood, sweat, and tears into creating what I think is an incredibly good series, and I’m very proud of it.”
It’s largely thanks to the director of ‘New Sunnydale’ that the actress finally decided to do the show. Gellar has nothing but praise for filmmaker Chloé Zhao, and the fact that she was going to be at the helm of the project gave her the confidence she needed to return to playing Buffy.
“Chloé Zhao came to me, and not just with her passion, because I’d seen passionate people before, but she knew how to navigate the world. She knew what the world was like, and she knew how to do it. And that was the first time I thought, ‘Maybe I could do this?’ And this went on for three years… Chloé and I went back and forth, saying I could do it, saying I couldn’t, and spending a lot of time developing what it was and why it was.”
With young actress Ryan Kiera Armstrong co-starring and succeeding Buffy, the series is still in the development stage, with everyone involved working closely together to deliver a continuation worthy of its predecessor. In Sarah Michelle Gellar’s words: “I know it seems like it’s taking a long time, and that’s because unless we’re sure that it’s exactly what we set out to do and that it makes sense to do it, we don’t want to sell you short on the legacy. When I know it’s perfect, then it will come out, but I won’t do it unless I know it can be.”
