Sarah Michelle Gellar is sharing her thoughts and a few details about the upcoming Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot, which is in the works at Hulu.
“It will be lighter than the last few seasons of the original,” Gellar told Vanity Fair in an interview at the Filming Italy Sardegna Festival. “We will try to find a balance between new and old characters. My dream is to bring back everyone who has died, but space will have to be made for new stories as well.”
Gellar, who led the original series from 1997 to 2003, is returning to reprise her signature role as Buffy Summers. Oscar winner Chloé Zhao, a self-professed lifelong Buffy fan, directs the pilot, written by Nora and Lilla Zuckerman (Poker Face).
Gellar said she’s “very lucky” she “didn’t feel the pressure that today’s actors feel” with social media during her time on Buffy, and wants to make sure the reboot includes modern themes.
“One of the surprising aspects of Buffy is that it’s always been a crossover series,” Gellar said. “We’re trying to figure out how to modernize the themes of the series, especially what it means to feel like an outsider in a world dominated by social media. What we want to explore are the space-time boundaries that affect society today.”
Gellar credits Zhao for luring her back for the reboot. “For so many years, I said no to a possible return of the series,” she said. “I didn’t want to reintroduce something we had already seen. I waited for the right time to come. Then Chloé, a big Buffy fan, proposed the project to me, and I accepted. The gestation was long. It’s been three years, and we’re still working on it.”
Ryan Kiera Armstrong (Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, Firestarter) was announced in May as the new slayer opposite Gellar. Armstrong’s character is described in casting materials as an introverted high-school student.
Referred to as the next chapter in the Buffyverse, the project comes from 20th Television and Disney sibling Searchlight TV. where Zhao has been under a first-look deal.
Nora and Lilla Zuckerman executive produce the pilot alongside Gellar, Zhao via her Book of Shadows banner as well as the original series’ executive producers Gail Berman of the Jackal Group and Fran Kuzui & Kaz Kuzui via Suite B. Also executive producing the pilot is Dolly Parton whose company Sandollar was producer on the original.
From Deadline.com