Sarah Michelle Gellar Promises Buffy Revival Will Only Happen “If We Know We Can Do It Right”

In 2018, a Buffy the Vampire Slayer revival was announced by Deadline as in-development by original creator Joss Whedon and writer-producer and Midnight Texas creator, Agents of SHIELD and Fringe writer Monica Owusu Breen.

That didn’t happen, and in the years that followed, it became clear that a new Buffy involving Whedon was not the way forward. Allegations of misconduct and abusive, bullying behaviour were made against the writer-director, primarily by Justice League actors Ray Fisher and Gal Gadot, and by Buffy and Angel actor Charisma Carpenter, whose statement on her treatment by Whedon was supported by fellow Buffy cast members Amber Benson and Michelle Trachtenberg.

Buffy star Sarah Michelle Gellar responded to Carpenter’s February 2021 posts with an Instagram message showing solidarity with survivors of abuse and saying: “While I am proud to have my name associated with Buffy Summers, I don’t want to be forever associated with the name Joss Whedon.”

It was obvious that a show themed around female empowerment couldn’t maintain ties with a creator described by Gellar in November 2022 as having run “an extremely toxic male set”. What fans didn’t know back then was that when Gellar made that statement, she was already in tentative talks with a new creative team about bringing Buffy back.

On Feb 6, 2025, Gellar posted the following on Instagram to address the news reported earlier in the week that another Buffy revival was nearing a pilot order from Hulu.

Gellar recounts being approached by producer Gail Berman (exec producer on Buffy throughout its run, and a powerhouse in US television perhaps unfairly famed among Whedon fans as having been the FOX exec to pull the plug on Firefly) to meet with the director of Best Picture Oscar winner Nomadland (and the less-feted Marvel’s Eternals) Chloé Zhao to hear “her take on a potential Buffy revival.” Gellar took the meeting, enjoyed it, agreed to nothing there-and-then but kept the conversation going. Talks continued, Poker Face writer-producers Nora and Lilla Zuckerman were added to their creative team, and, as Gellar puts it in her Insta post, “ultimately, one day, we landed on an idea.” She continued:

“I have always listened to the fans and heard your desire to revisit “Buffy” and her world, but it was not something I could do unless I was sure we would get it right. This has been a long process, and it’s not over yet. I promise you, we will only make this show if we know we can do it right. And I will tell you that we are on the path there.

“I feel so lucky to be on this journey with these four unbelievably talented women, all of whom love “Buffy” as much as I do. And as much as you do. Thank you to all the fans who never stopped asking for this. This will be for you.”

Immediately underneath Gellar’s post was an endorsement from actor Emma Caulfield, who played ex-demon Anya in Buffy seasons three to seven, and who called Gellar’s words “Perfect”. So, Anya’s into it.

There are so many questions to ask about a Buffy TV revival. Would the show will ignore the comic books series that continued the story? Which of the original cast would return (Nicholas Brendon, who played Xander Harris on the show, has had a string of arrests and charges for drugs and violent behaviour including domestic violence in recent years)? If actors James Marsters and David Boreanaz were to come back as their non-ageing vampire characters Spike and Angel, would they be digitally de-aged to cover up the 20-odd years that have passed since last we saw them, and if so, would it look weird?

For now though, in Gellar we trust. She promises fans that they won’t do it unless they can do it right. As someone who could easily have given in and taken a fat revival check at any point in the decades since Buffy ended, she has the show’s best interests at heart, as well as the backbone and nous to follow through on her promise. After all, she is the class protector.

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