Sarah Michelle Gellar wants to make sure Buffy the Vampire Slayer: New Sunnydale is perfect before it’s shown to the world
About seven years ago, it was announced that a reboot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was in development with Monica Owusu-Breen, co-creator of the TV show Midnight, Texas, writing, executive producing, and serving as showrunner. It was said that the new show would be “contemporary, building on the mythology of the original.” That project never made it into production – and earlier this year, it was revealed that we’re going to be getting a Buffy the Vampire Slayer revival instead, with Sarah Michelle Gellar returning to the role of Buffy Summers and Chloé Zhao (Nomadland, Eternals) directing the first episode. The new show is called Buffy the Vampire Slayer: New Sunnydale and the pilot episode was filmed months ago. Now, during an interview on the Shut Up Evan podcast, Gellar said she wants to make sure this revival is perfect before it’s shown to the world.
Cast and Creative Team
Teenage actress Ryan Kiera Armstrong (Firestarter) has been cast as a new slayer, an introverted high school student named Nova. Also in the cast are Faly Rakotohavana (Unprisoned), Ava Jean (Law & Order: SVU), Sarah Bock (Severance), Daniel Di Tomasso (CSI: Vegas) and Jack Cutmore-Scott (Frasier) are also in the cast, taking on the series regular roles of Hugo, a privileged, likable high-school student who is a geek; Larkin, another student described as a “chronic do-gooder”; Gracie, the ringleader for a group of church-going students; Abe, Nova’s single father who is a photojournalist; and Mr. Burke, a popular high school teacher. Kingston Vernes (The Survivor) has been cast as Nova’s crush, Carson, and will be a guest star in the pilot, but Carson is envisioned as being a major recurring character if the project goes to series. He’s “a Junior Olympian and popular student at New Sunnydale Academy who is the object of Nova’s crush and starts noticing her after a life-changing event.” Chase Sui Wonders (I Know What You Did Last Summer 2025) makes a guest appearance in the pilot. Merrin Dungey (The Lincoln Lawyer), Audrey Hsieh (Found), and Audrey Grace Marshall (The Flight Attendant) are guest stars in the pilot, but they could have recurring roles if the show is ordered to series. Dungey’s character is Ms. LaDuca, the college counselor at New Sunnydale Academy. Hsieh and Marshall play Keiko and Jessica, high school students and members of the academy’s Evangelical Christian group.
Oscar-winning director Zhao, who is a self-professed lifelong Buffy fan, is directing the pilot from a script by Nora and Lilla Zuckerman (Poker Face). The revival is coming our way from 20th Television and Searchlight TV, where Zhao has a first-look deal. Deadline recently said that the revival would be “starting a writers room soon, a sign that Hulu and the studios have high expectations for the project going to series. It is unclear yet whether other original Buffy cast members would return; that is considered likely.”
This is being referred to as “the next chapter in the Buffyverse.” The revival is being executive produced by Gellar, Zhao, and the Zuckermans, as well as the original series’ executive producers Gail Berman of the Jackal Group and Fran Kuzui and Kaz Kuzui of Suite B. Also executive producing the pilot is Dolly Parton, whose company Sandollar was behind the original show. In case you’re wondering, “Buffy creator Joss Whedon, who also wrote the 1992 movie the series was based on, has no involvement in the reboot. He has not worked in Hollywood in any official capacity since facing a slew of misconduct allegations in 2021.”
The Latest from Gellar
During her Shut Up Evan interview, Gellar said (with thanks to our friends at Bloody Disgusting for the transcription), “I never saw how to do (a revival). I never saw how and why it could be as good. I’m not trying to be better, I just want to hold up. I want to hold and honor the memory and what we created. I know sometimes that memory is conflicted for people about how they’re supposed to feel about it, but a lot of people put their blood, sweat, and tears into making what I think is an incredibly great show, and I’m incredibly proud of it. Chloé Zhao came to me – and not just her passion, because I’ve seen people with passion before, but she knew how to go into the world, she knew what the world was, and she knew the why. And that was the first time I said, ‘Maybe, could I possibly do this?’ And this went on for, what, three years now of me and Chloé going back and forth — saying I could do it, saying I can’t — and really spending the time to develop what it is and why it is. We’re still working on that, why and how. We live in a society where we want binging, we want it now, and I know this seems like it’s taking a long time. And it’s because, unless we are sure that it is exactly what we we set out to do and that it makes sense to do it, we don’t want to sully the legacy by not. When I know it’s perfect, it will be out there, but I won’t do it unless I know it can be that.“
Are you looking forward to seeing Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy again in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: New Sunnydale, and are you glad to hear that she has high standards for the show? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
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