Sarah Michelle Gellar Reveals How Buffy Reboot Will Stand Alongside Original Series

Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans, both new and old, rejoiced when a reboot of the iconic series was announced earlier this year. The original series, which ran from 1997 to 2003, won two Primetime Emmys and launched the successful spin-off series Angel. Now Buffy star Sarah Michelle Gellar reveals what made her say “yes” to a reboot of the show that made her a star twenty-two years after the series went off the air. On SiriusXM Hits 1’s The Morning Mash Up with Buffy co-star Alyson Hannigan last week, Gellar said it was the reboot’s director, Chloé Zhao (Eternals), and creators Lilla and Nora Zuckerman’s (Poker Face) decision to make the series a continuation of Buffy Summers’s story rather than telling the same story over.

Gellar said, “Everyone was just trying to redo it. And they [the Zuckermans] had a continuation of where it goes now. And, you know, as Alyson and I now have teenagers, and it’s – you see the circle of what’s needed.”

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“Absolutely,” said Hannigan. “We used to play teens, and now we have teens.”

The new Buffy series is currently in pre-production at Hulu. The reboot will see Gellar reprising her beloved role alongside a new Slayer protagonist. Just last week, it was announced that Ryan Kiera Armstrong (Skeleton Crew) scored the role and will star alongside Gellar in the new series. Details about Armstrong’s character and the nature of her relationship with Gellar’s Buffy remain tightly under wraps.

Gellar Hopes New Buffy Series Will Provide Comfort for Viewers

Unlike many reboots, the new incarnation of Buffy the Vampire Slayer appears to be full of care and love for the original series, rather than a soulless, risk-averse cash grab by a studio. Gellar’s participation, along with Zhao, who has an Oscar for her direction of Nomadland, supports that notion.

Both Gellar and Hannigan reflected on why Buffy has endured since it went off air in the early 2000s, and why it merits a continuation over two decades later. “You realize all these years later that the show still translates. Because sometimes you watch a show that you loved and you see it now, and you’re like, ‘Okay’, but it doesn’t have the same meaning.” Gellar said. “And Buffy is still hitting people who are watching it for the first time, and they’re seeing themselves, and they’re seeing their friends, and they’re finding their chosen family.”

Hannigan was quick to agree that her Buffy castmates became akin to family working on the series. Gellar then went on to share that in such a polarized political and media landscape, her hope is that the Buffy reboot series will provide its viewers with comfort and connection. “I think, more than ever right now, as we get more and more divided, we need that chosen family. So I hope to provide a new chosen family.” With such an illustrious team of newcomers and old favorites, one can feel confident that Gellar’s wish for the series could be granted when the new Buffy series premieres next year.