With Hulu working on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer continuation and having cast Star Wars: Skeleton Crew’s Ryan Kiera Armstrong as the next Slayer, original series lead Sarah Michelle Gellar has teased what this new series will feel like compared to the original, as well as other returning stars who may join her for the reunion.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer followed Gellar as Buffy, a young high school student chosen as the Slayer to fight against vampires, demons and other forces of darkness. The sequel series will see SMG reprise her iconic role as she potentially trains Armstrong’s new Slayer to take up the call in a radically different world than Buffy’s youth. Armstong’s Slayer is described as an introverted high-school student.
In an interview with Vanity Fair Italia, Gellar revealed the new series will be lighter than some of the original’s darker stories and heavier material featured in its later seasons, saying “It will be lighter than the last few seasons of the original. 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.”
She also touched on the generational differences that will emerge between Buffy, the new Slayer as well as the old and new audience. “One of the surprising aspects of Buffy is that it’s always been a crossover series. 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.”
The potential for dead characters to return is large as the original series was no stranger to resurrections, including Buffy’s own, and featured several deaths towards the end of its run as well as its spin-off Angel which saw Angel, Spike and their allies preparing for a last stand against a demonic horde and their fates left unrevealed. Deceased characters from the Buffy-verse include Cordelia, Anya and Tara, the latter of which helped bring attention to the Bury Your Gays trope seen across media.
The Buffy reboot is being developed by Academy Award winning Nomadland and Eternals director Chloé Zhao, who is helming the pilot, and written by Nora and Lilla Zuckerman (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, Poker Face) for 20th Television and Searchlight TV. As well as starring in the pilot, Gellar is also down as an executive producer on the show.
What do you hope the tone of the Buffy reboot will be? Which characters and actors do you hope to see brought back to the series? Let us know on our social channels at @FlickeringMyth…
Ricky Church – Follow me on Bluesky for more movie news and nerd talk.
