After announcing that Hulu will no longer be moving forward with the Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot, original star Sarah Michelle Gellar has shed a little more light on who is to blame for the cancellation.
“We had an executive on our show who was not only not a fan of the original, but was proud to constantly remind us that he had never seen the entirety of the series and how it wasn’t for him,” said Gellar to People. “That’s very hard when you’re taking a property that is as beloved as Buffy, not just to the world, but to Chloé and me. So that tells you the uphill battle that we had been fighting since day one.”
Deadline has reported that Craig Erwich, who oversees Hulu Originals and ABC Entertainment, made the decision not to proceed with the show. The streamer hopes to get another shot at the Buffy IP in the next few years. But now that Erwich has also been put in charge of overseeing 20th Television, which owns the Buffy IP, that means that any future incarnations will likely also fall under Erwich’s watch, too.
The spin-off, titled Buffy the Vampire Slayer: New Sunnydale, was led by Hamnet director Chloé Zhao and starred Ryan Kiera Armstrong as the new slayer. The show had already filmed a pilot, so the news of its cancellation came as a complete shock to many, including Gellar. “Let me tell you, nobody saw this coming,” added the star, “including the head of Searchlight.”
However, Deadline states that after the pilot was delivered, Hulu felt as though the show was “too small” and didn’t take enough swings. The streamer also felt that Buffy was “played too young.” Armstrong was 15 years old when she was cast. So, the pilot underwent a full rewrite. Nora and Lilla Zuckerman produced a new script that was 90 minutes long and “more adult,” featuring more of Gellar’s OG slayer. The rewrite was well received by both 20th Century and Searchlight Studio, so what went wrong?
What makes the cancellation even more shocking is that Hulu pulled the plug on New Sunnydale the same weekend that Gellar was due to present her new horror movie Ready or Not 2: Here I Come at SXSW, and just days before Zhao would attend the Oscars, where she was nominated for Best Director. Gellar added, “For them to call us on the Friday of what should have been Chloé’s victory lap for an incredible film, and my world premiere of something that I worked very hard for is… That says something.”
The timing does indeed seem strange, as Deadline reports that there were no time constraints, but says that those involved in the pilot had been waiting a while for feedback.
The original Buffy the Vampire Slayer series is available to watch oin Disney Plus. For more, check out the new TV shows coming your way.