Beep her - the apocalypse is coming. Buffy the Vampire Slayer legacy sequel series in the works at Hulu, Sarah Michelle Gellar to return

 

Images Courtesy: Fox/Hulu/Disney

More than twenty years after we said goodbye to the Buffyverse, with the 2003 finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the 2004 finale of Angel, it appears that we are at long last returning to that much-beloved world - and Buffy herself is taking us there. According to a Deadline report today, plans are nearly in place for a pilot order at Hulu (the current streaming home of the original series, also on Disney+) for a Buffy the Vampire Slayer legacy sequel - and reportedly Hulu is starting to assemble a writer's room for the show, which indicates confidence that it will go to series. The pilot is to be directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker and lifelong Buffy fan Chloé Zhao, and written by Poker Face showrunner duo Nora and Lilla Zuckerman. And crucially - the key ingredient which I strongly suspect is the reason why this is happening at all - Sarah Michelle Gellar is returning to star. 

Gellar, Zhao, and the Zuckermans are producing, along with the executive producers of the original series - including the long-unnamed but now on-the-record secret executive producer of the original, Dolly Parton (it's true, and a delightful bit of until-recently-little-known Buffy trivia). Notably NOT involved in any way, shape, or form is Joss Whedon, the disgraced creator/showrunner of the original whose reputation and career imploded a few years ago in the wake of a bunch of very ugly revelations about his character and behavior, from Buffy through to Justice League; he has been thoroughly canceled and has more or less never been heard from in the entertainment industry again. Because of how the rights were drawn up when, as a relatively new screenwriter with little bargaining power, he sold the original screenplay for Buffy the Vampire Slayer the 1992 movie, the rights to the franchise rest solely with executive producers the Kuzuis, and 20th Century Fox. This makes it very very easy for a Whedon-free reboot to happen, now that he is seen as so antithetical to everything the show represents and stands for.

In the years since Whedon's downfall, the cast of Buffy the Vampire Slayer - mostly its actresses - have done a very vocal job of reclaiming the narrative of the show; celebrating its groundbreaking feminist and queer representation, and shifting the focus off of Whedon and onto all the other creators who did so much of the work to make it the series that it was. Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia) and Amber Benson (Tara) have probably been the show's biggest cheerleaders and stewards of its reputation, coming forward with their own revelations about Joss Whedon, but being equally vocal about how much the show and their characters still mean to them both, how proud they are of what they created, and how it is still very much worth celebrating, while centering the work of its other authors, from the actors like themselves to key writers like Marti Noxon and Jane Espenson. Sarah Michelle Gellar likewise became a major cheerleader for the show, the importance of what it stands for, the need to separate it from its creator, and her appreciation for its fandom and community. It has been a singular case study in how to reclaim a beloved series from its problematic creator. A reclamation that seemingly culminated with Amber Benson herself co-writing and co-directing an Audible-original audiodrama legacy sequel, with much of the show's core cast (Benson, Charisma Carpenter, James Marsters, Emma Caulfield, Juliet Landau, Anthony Stewart Head, and others) returning.

Notably absent from Audible's Slayers: A Buffyverse Story, though, was Buffy herself - Sarah Michelle Gellar, who has always held firm that she had zero interest in ever returning to the role. Even during her own reclamation of the narrative around the show, she always said that the series was perfect as it was, as a sealed time-capsule, and she didn't want to reopen it. This always seemed to be the biggest obstacle to a televised legacy sequel, and the main reason why the Audible series seemed like the best we were ever likely to get; after all, you can't have Buffy without Buffy. But then she started work on the new Dexter prequel series, and it changed her perspective. 

"It's funny," she said in a December interview, "I always used to say no, because it's in its bubble and it's so perfect. But then watching Sex and the City and seeing Dexter, and realizing there are ways to do it, definitely does get into your mind thinking, well, maybe." When pressed further, she added "it makes you realize that in this world, we need those heroes, I think, more so than ever."

According to the Deadline article, producers started reaching out to her with negotiations as soon as the interview dropped, and less than two months later, an SMG-produced-and-lead Buffy sequel appears to be right around the corner. According to reports, it will take the form of a Force Awakens type of legacy sequel featuring both the original and new generations. While SMG will be one of the series leads, the show will also star a younger slayer, presumably a teenager as Buffy was in the original series. There is no word yet on which other original-series stars will return, but the Deadline report says that more stars returning is likely.

Personally, I would very much hope that at minimum Alyson Hannigan will return as Willow and Anthony Head will return as Giles. Considering that in real life Sarah Michelle Gellar remains extremely close with Seth Green and Michelle Trachtenberg, I would hope that might make returns from Oz and Dawn likely as well. Slayers on Audible proved that other actors like Charisma Carpenter, Amber Benson, and Emma Caulfield would probably be down to return, if they would fit into the narrative - maybe treat that audio series as canon, or fold in some of its plot points, if that doesn't make things too convoluted? Of course, fans would surely want to see James Marsters and David Boreanaz as Spike and Angel again, but... unlike vampires, both actors have aged 20+ years in the interim, so plot-device shenanigans would be required for that to happen. Clearly they can't bring back the entire original cast without things getting a bit overstuffed or unwieldy for newcomers, so we will see... Personally I'm hoping for a fairly sizable Scooby Gang reunion, though!

We will be watching closely for updates...

- Christopher S. Jordan