Sarah Michelle Gellar wants to bring back the dead for the new “Buffy” reboot series. Gellar, who reprises the role of Buffy Summers for the Hulu pilot, said during the Filming Italy Sardegna Festival that she is determined to have her fellow alums return — even if their characters already died onscreen.
“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” aired on the WB for five seasons from 1997 to 2001 before moving to UPN for two more seasons. The series landed spinoff “Angel” from 1999 to 2004. Yet the revival — which is still at the pilot stage and hasn’t been greenlit to series just yet — will be different in tone from the franchise predecessors.
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“It will be lighter than the last few seasons of the original,” Gellar said, as translated by Vanity Fair. “We will try to find a balance between new and old characters. My dream is to bring back everyone who has died, but space will have to be made for new stories as well.”
Those new stories will center around newcomer Ryan Kiera Armstrong’s character, described in the casting announcement as an introverted high-school student who is a young Slayer. Armstrong’s co-leading character is also “more Willow than Buffy,” according to TVLine. The 15-year-old Armstrong also starred in the Disney+ series “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew.”
The “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” revival will continue to be a genre and audience “crossover” show, as Gellar said. “One of the surprising aspects of ‘Buffy’ is that it’s always been a crossover series,” Gellar added. “We’re trying to figure out how to modernize the themes of the series, especially what it means to feel like an outsider in a world dominated by social media. What we want to explore are the space-time boundaries that affect society today.”
Gellar executive produces the series and agreed to return after hearing Oscar winner Chloé Zhao’s pitch for the show. “Every pitch I heard was just like, ‘Let’s just do “Buffy” again,’” Gellar previously told Elite Daily of why she finally decided to agree to a revival. “Why? But the passion that [Zhao] came to me with, what she wanted to do with the show and the character, and why ‘Buffy’ is needed now — it was the first time where I thought, ‘OK, there’s a reason.’”
Gellar said that the revival has been in the works for four years. “We won’t do it unless it’s 100 percent right and there’s 100 percent a reason,” she said. “The whole point of an antihero is to be a hero for the people who don’t fit in the box, the people who aren’t like everybody else. That’s who I want to tell stories for.”
Original “Buffy” star Alyson Hannigan has hinted that she might return for the reboot. Gellar also confirmed that the series would pay tribute to late actress Michelle Trachtenberg, who played her younger sister Dawn Summers during Seasons 5 through 7. “We’ll be able to do something,” Gellar said. “We’ll do what’s appropriate.”
Zhao is directing the pilot, with “Poker Face” scribes Nora and Lilla Zuckerman writing the 20th Television and Searchlight TV series. “Buffy” creator and writer Joss Whedon has no involvement in the reboot.
