A year ago, Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans were rejoicing. The beloved ‘90s series was finally getting a follow-up, thanks to the announcement of a sequel series coming to Hulu. But that excitement has turned to outrage as of March 14, when star Sarah Michelle Gellar announced on social media that Buffy wasn’t coming back from the dead after all.
The reboot series, titled Buffy: New Sunnydale, would see Gellar reprise her role as the titular teenage vampire hunter, now all grown up and mentoring a new slayer, played by Ryan Kiera Armstrong. Oscar winner Chloé Zhao was set to direct and executive produce after pitching the project to Gellar four years ago. The team had already filmed a pilot for the series.
But on Friday, March 13, both Zhao and Gellar received unexpected phone calls telling them the project had been canceled. Gellar was caught off-guard: She was just stepping on stage for the premiere of her new movie, Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, at the SXSW Film & TV Festival when the news came through.
“Let me tell you, nobody saw this coming,” Gellar said in an interview with People. That includes the head of Searchlight Pictures, the studio behind both Buffy: New Sunnydale as a co-producer and Ready or Not 2.
“I got the call as we were stepping onto stage for the premiere of their own movie,” Gellar continued.
The timing was equally poor for Zhao, who was just days away from heading to the Academy Awards as a Best Director nominee for Hamnet.
“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 . . .” Gellar said, trailing off. “That says something.”
Why would Hulu pull the plug so abruptly? Gellar attributed the cancellation to a single Hulu executive, who she did not name.
“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,” Gellar added.
Buffy fans were predictably devastated by the switch-up. After Gellar broke the news with an Instagram video the next morning, they mourned and raged in her comments section.
“This has absolutely ruined my year,” one fan wrote. “Someone needs to pick up this pilot and save it!!” pleaded another.
Gellar said the fan response proves the irony of working with that unnamed Hulu executive.
“The fans, they were the only reason we were doing this show in the first place,” she says. “We were doing it because everybody loves it. So how do you do a show that’s beloved with someone that doesn’t love it?”
Hulu did not respond to Fast Company’s request for comment, but outlets including Deadline report that Disney Television Group President Craig Erwich is likely the executive in question, citing sources close to the project.
On the red carpet for Sunday night’s Academy Awards, Zhao also responded to the reboot’s cancellation.
“Our priority for Sarah and for us has always been to be truthful to the show, to be truthful to our fans,” Zhao said. “So, things happen for a reason, and we keep our hearts open and we welcome the mystery. And what this might lead us to.”
Gellar also said she hopes fans don’t let the cancellation affect their memory of the original series.
“Buffy is timeless,” she said. “And the one thing I do want all these fans to know is that legacy is still there and this doesn’t diminish it. It doesn’t change it. That legacy is still there—for them.”