These include the confirmation that Gellar would be reprising her iconic role as Buffy Summers and that Oscar-winning director Chloé Zhao would helm the pilot. In the new series, Buffy would serve as a mentor figure to Nova (Ryan Kiera Armstrong), an introverted teenage Slayer. More casting announcements followed, along with an official title — Buffy the Vampire Slayer: New Sunnydale — and a 2026 release window.
However, with reports that the New Sunnydale pilot episode, which was written by Poker Face‘s Nora and Lilla Zuckerman, was “not perfect,” Hulu cancelled the Buffy revival series. Deadline reported that Hulu allegedly felt the pilot played too young and too small, and the Zuckermans were asked to do a rewrite and increase Buffy’s screentime. Sadly, this was not enough to save it, and the details that followed add insult to injury.
The Buffy Reboot Cancellation Controversy Explained
Given that the show has been popular for almost three decades, with Buffy celebrating the 29th anniversary of its premiere last week on March 10, backlash against the sequel series’s cancellation was inevitable. Making matters worse is the callous timing of the announcement and the fact that New Sunnydale was likely doomed from the start.
According to Deadline, Disney Television Group President Craig Erwich called relevant parties on the night of Friday, March 13, informing them that the Buffy revival pilot was no longer moving forward. Deadline‘s sources decried that revealing such shattering news at 6 PM on a Friday — and a famously unlucky day at that — was “misguided” and “terrible.”
Beyond the unprofessional timing, it was an especially cruel moment to deliver this blow, as the upcoming weekend was otherwise a high point in both Sarah Michelle Gellar and Chloé Zhao’s careers. Gellar was attending the SXSW Film & TV Festival for the first time ever, celebrating the premiere of her new film, Ready or Not 2: Here I Come — her first big-screen appearance in nearly two decades. Meanwhile, Zhao was attending the 98th Academy Awards, where her film, Hamnet, was nominated for eight awards, including a director nod for Zhao.
“No one saw this coming, including the head of Searchlight [Pictures],” Gellar revealed in an exclusive interview with People. (Searchlight produced Ready or Not 2. “And I got the call as we were stepping onto stage for the premiere of their own movie… For them to call us on the Friday of what should have been Chloé’s victory lap for an incredible film, and my world premiere of something that I worked very hard for is… That says something,” the Buffy actress said.
The worst part of this entire debacle is another revelation from Gellar. She shared that an executive — widely reported to be Erwich — was gunning for the Buffy revival from the beginning. Gellar told People:
“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.
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.”
Gellar is bang on that Buffy is a beloved property. If anything, that’s an understatement. So, the fact that the executive was not only not a fan, but actively rooting against New Sunnydale is astounding and insulting to Gellar, Zhao, all of the people who worked on the pilot, and the entire Buffy fandom.
In her People interview, Gellar also divulged that she had never considered returning to the Buffyverse, but said yes to Chloé Zhao after one meeting because of “the deep love and commitment and passion she had for this character.“
This whole mess almost sounds like a Buffy episode, only instead of destroying the world, the Big Bad is killing the New Sunnydale pilot, and countless hopes and dreams along with it. The Scooby Gang always found a way to save the day — here’s hoping Gellar and Zhao can too.
Could The Buffy Reboot Still Happen?
Now that Buffy the Vampire Slayer: New Sunnydale series is not moving forward at Hulu, the question is: Is there any hope that Chloé Zhao and Sarah Michelle Gellar’s pilot will see the light of day? When Variety asked Zhao about this on the Oscars red carpet, she was upbeat yet cryptic.
The Hamnet director said that she was not surprised by Hulu’s decision, and expressed that those who worked on the new Buffy series saw themselves as “the guardians of the original show.” As far as Zhao and co. taking the Buffy pilot to a different streaming platform, she answered simply: “Welcome, the mystery.”
Whether there’s more to the story that Zhao isn’t saying, or she herself “welcomes the mystery,” one cold, hard fact remains — Disney owns all Buffy the Vampire Slayer franchise IP, including the New Sunnydale pilot. Therefore, if Zhao or anyone involved with the new show wanted to take it somewhere else, Disney would have to sign off on it.
According to Deadline, Hulu “remains high on the Buffy IP,” and will reassess how to potentially move forward with the franchise on the streaming platform. On the one hand, this is good news for fans still wanting to see new entries into the Buffyverse. On the other, it likely means that Disney will want to keep all Buffy projects to themselves, including Zhao’s unaired pilot.
This is a shame, especially because New Sunnydale had all the ingredients to perform like gangbusters on Netflix or a similar platform. The OG series was a huge binge-watch boon for Netflix in the 2010s, and at one point, the streamer was famous for resurrecting cancelled TV projects. But with Disney holding all the cards, this is essentially a pipe dream.
Why The Buffy Reboot Needs To Happen
Unsurprisingly, following New Sunnydale‘s cancellation, Buffy fans were quick to air their anger at Hulu on social media. Many implied hypocrisy on the streaming platform’s part for continually greenlighting Ryan Murphy shows, no matter how bad or empty — All’s Fair and The Beauty are considered some of his most recent misfires — yet canning the Buffy pilot.
It truly is upsetting that a male creative seemingly has carte blanche to make whatever half-baked idea comes to mind, while an Oscar-winning female director and one of TV’s most iconic actresses can’t get their project — from a hugely popular IP — off the ground.
To be fair, none of us has seen the New Sunnydale pilot. Maybe it isn’t “perfect.” But if there’s any project that deserves as many chances as it takes to get there, it’s the Buffy revival. The male Hulu executive may have been proud not to have watched Buffy until the end, but any fan will tell you he’s missing out.
Speaking of fans, the show’s primary demographics are Gen X-ers and elder millennials, meaning that many of us have enough disposable income to afford a streaming service like Hulu, and those not already subscribed would surely sign up in a heartbeat when New Sunnydale hit the air.
This news really is a blow to those of us who grew up watching Buffy and the Scoobies fight vampires, demons, and the forces of darkness. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a show that not only made outsiders feel seen but celebrated what made us different. It told teenage girls to be themselves, and that their stories were worth telling. Apparently, that wasn’t enough to save New Sunnydale.