Buffy star Sarah Michelle Gellar puts an end to hopes for return

By James Hibbs

Published: Thursday, 05 January 2023 at 12:00 am

With rumours and reports of a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot having percolated for many years now, Sarah Michelle Gellar has re-affirmed that if such a project were to go ahead, she would not be a part of it.

The Buffy Summers star was speaking with SFX Magazine ahead of her new Paramount+ series Wolf Pack, when she revealed that she would not be looking for return to her most famous role.

Gellar said: “I am very proud of the show that we created, and it doesn’t need to be done. We wrapped that up. I am all for them continuing the story, because there’s the story of female empowerment. I love the way the show was left: ‘Every girl who has the power can have the power.’

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Sarah Michelle Gellar.
Emma McIntyre/Getty Images

“It’s set up perfectly for someone else to have the power. But like I said, the metaphors of Buffy were the horrors of adolescence. I think I look young, but I am not an adolescent.”

Buffy originally ran for seven seasons from 1997 to 2003, and was based on a 1992 film of the same name with which it does not share continuity. Alongside Gellar, the series also starred Nicholas Brendon, Alyson Hannigan, Charisma Carpenter and Anthony Head amongst others.

A reboot was announced back in 2018, but since then little news has been heard regarding the development of the series. In 2022, during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter’s TV’s Top 5 Podcast, the original show’s executive producer Gail Berman revealed that the project had been put “on pause”.

In 2021, Gellar said that while she supported the idea of a reboot, she didn’t think she “should be the one doing it”, adding that she’s “way too tired and cranky to put in that work again”.