Sarah Michelle Gellar has announced that Hulu will not “move forward” with the long-awaited Buffy reboot.
“So I am really sad to have to share this, but I wanted you all to hear it from me – unfortunately Hulu has decided not to move forward with Buffy: New Sunnydale,” Gellar, 48, announced via Instagram on Saturday, March 14. “I want to thank [director] Chloe Zhao because I never thought I would find myself back in Buffy’s stylish yet affordable boots and thanks to Chloe I was reminded how much I love her and how much she means not only to me but to all of you.”
She continued, “And this doesn’t change any of that. And I promise if the apocalypse actually comes you can still beep me.”
Us Weekly confirmed in February 2025 that Gellar was reprising her iconic role in Hulu’s upcoming follow-up series, described as “the next chapter in the Buffyverse” following a new slayer, played by Ryan Kiera Armstrong. Gellar famously played the vampire slayer Buffy Summers on the WB’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer from 1997 to 2003.
“It’s incredibly emotionally overwhelming,” Gellar exclusively told Us on August 27, 2025, of her feelings when stepping back onto the Buffy reboot set more than two decades after she left her vampire slaying days behind. “It’s just a place I didn’t know that I would find myself. While it was new, it was also incredibly familiar, and I feel very lucky.”
While speaking to ComicBook’s Bryan Clairns on Friday, March 13, Gellar admitted that it took her more than a few years to come around to the idea of joining the reboot.
“It’s still taken us four years to get to this place because I would say, ‘Yes,’ and then I would call a month later and say, ‘No. No, no, no. I can’t,’” she explained to the outlet. “I’m Camerone Frye from Ferris Bueller. ‘Again, again, again…’”
She continued, “I just asked people to give me the time and understand that it took us six years to get to a sequel to Ready or Not. When you want to do things right, it takes time.”
Gellar stars in the new film Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, a follow-up to the successful 2019 film Ready or Not starring Samara Weaving. In the film, Gellar plays Ursula Danforth, the so-called “brains’ Behind a deadly new game who often bickers with her twin brother, Titus Danforth (Shawn Hatosy).
“Mind you, I also said no to Chloe many times in the beginning, as well,” Gellar said of the Buffy reboot. “Her passion, and her reasoning for wanting to do it, and why now, and why it is necessary.”
Gellar also clarified that her reason for ultimately saying yes to the Buffy reboot was not monetary in nature.
“This is not a crash grab to have a job,” she said.
