It’s been an unpleasant few days for Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans. First, Sarah Michelle Gellar broke the news that Buffy: New Sunnydale, the Hulu reboot of her cult-beloved series, had been called off. She followed that up by revealing the reason came down to one executive in particular who, notably, also wasn’t a fan of the original show.
On the Oscars red carpet, Chloé Zhao—a longtime Buffy fan who was aboard as exec producer and directed the New Sunnydale pilot—said she wasn’t surprised about the cancellation.
Now, a new report in Variety builds on the disappointment by further exploring the reasons New Sunnydale hit a dead end. The original script for the pilot by Nora and Lilla Zuckerman apparently didn’t feature more than a glimpse of Gellar’s Buffy Summers, instead focusing on the new, younger Slayer character played by Skeleton Crew‘s Ryan Kiera Armstrong. That was reworked, the trade says, but the pilot was still deemed “unsalvageable” and “not good enough, in Hulu’s estimation, to turn things around.”
Earlier Wednesday, Gellar was on Sirius XM’s Page Six Radio (via the Hollywood Reporter) and advised Buffy fans not to seek out the script for the pilot. “I’ve seen a version of the script out there. It’s not actually correct. That stuff is really unfortunate and I ask fans if you see scripts—if you see them leaked—don’t watch it because you’re not getting our vision and all of that.”
Hulu also apparently took issue with Zhao’s direction. The Oscar winner (for Nomadland) and recent nominee (for Hamnet) also helmed the Marvel movie Eternals, which would seemingly be enough to vet her, especially while handling a fan-beloved franchise, for Hulu and Marvel’s parent company, Disney.
The Variety report cites sources who said, “Zhao’s prodigious skills as a director didn’t lend themselves to a television pilot that requires a lot of exposition. It was undershot, and there wasn’t any coverage, one source said, so there would have had to be reshoots on the pilot anyway. The performances from the actors playing the new characters, who need to make a strong impression as they’re introduced, were underdirected, the sources said. That Armstrong, the new Slayer, has a very young appearance—she turned 16 on March 10—contributed to the whole enterprise playing too young.”
Projects come to an end at the pilot stage all the time, and you can understand why Hulu wouldn’t want to frustrate legions of Buffy fans by releasing a reboot deemed “not good enough.” However, it still feels like there’s more to the story, especially considering Gellar’s callout of the executive who didn’t support the show (Gellar didn’t name him, but Variety notes, as Deadline’s prior reporting did, that it’s Craig Erwich, the head of Hulu Originals, who also now oversees 20th Television and 20th Television Animation).
Bridges have been burned, in other words, and Disney has started doing damage control. Speaking to Variety, a spokesperson said, “We have had a long and very successful relationship with Chloé, Sarah, and [executive producer] Gail [Berman]—their track records speak for themselves and they are incredible partners. Our decision not to move forward with a series order is not a reflection of our respect and admiration for the creative team, including Lilla and Nora.”
Variety also cites its sources to confirm reports that “Hulu is still hopeful that a new creative team can revive the revival sometime in the future. But one well-placed source close to the show said the pilot process wasn’t more difficult than launching any other television show—yet it was made ‘all the more difficult’ by Hulu, which ultimately had ‘no idea what they really wanted.’”
The trade also notes that Hulu doesn’t appear inclined to let the Buffy the Vampire Slayer IP escape to another platform, so you can stake that dream right now. And good luck getting the rightfully furious Sarah Michelle Gellar—the single most important ingredient in any Buffy do-over—to agree to return again after all this.
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