Editor’s Update – March 18, 2026
Since this article ran, Variety has published a new report that expands upon some of the more specific problems Hulu supposedly had with the Buffy revival’s pilot and how the project fell apart.
The report, which is attributed in parts to “sources close to the show,” suggests that Hulu felt that the series’ pilot did not feature enough of Sarah Michelle Gellar’s Buffy and was aimed at too young an audience. The pilot’s original script reportedly doesn’t show Buffy until the very end of the episode when we learn that she is working at an insurance company in New York City. She only has one line in that episode. The rest of the episode takes place in Sunnydale, where we watch new slayer Nova (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) battle vampires that have been reawakened in Sunnydale. Though writers Nora and Lilla Zuckerman rewrote the pilot in order to age the show up a bit and give Buffy a more substantial role, Hulu ultimately decided not to move forward with the project.
Anonymous sources also suggest that some at Hulu and its associated parent companies did not see Zhao as a good fit for the series and television directing. They note that reshoots would have been required to make up for a supposed lack of “coverage” in the original footage and that some of the new characters were seen as “under-directed.” Variety also confirms that the anonymous executive that Gellar referenced in her comments below is indeed Craig Erwich, the head of Hulu Originals who now oversees 20th Television and 20th Television Animation.
At this time, Zhao, Gellar, the Zuckermans, and all other major members of the show’s creative cast have not commented on the validity of those reports or offered their perspective on this situation in light of the information they contain. As that is the case (and because that report does not notably contradict some of the information about this situation we previously learned), the rest of this article is presented below as it was originally written. – Matthew
Original Story
The oddest thing about Hulu choosing not to go forward with the Buffy the Vampire Slayer sequel series, New Sunnydale—other than, you know, the fact that they made that choice at all—was the timing of the news. On Friday, star and executive producer Sarah Michelle Gellar was at her first SXSW Film & TV Festival promoting Ready or Not 2. Pilot director and producer Chloé Zhao was preparing for Sunday night’s Oscars ceremony. Zhao’s Hamnet was nominated for eight Oscars.
Amid all of that, Deadline reports that they got the call about their beloved show’s untimely demise on Friday evening. And it was a shock to them. “Nobody saw this coming,” Gellar told People in a new interview in which she enthused about making the show, and about new Slayer, Ryan Kiera Armstrong: “I’m gutted that no one will see her as a Slayer.”
As Gellar rightly pointed out, the timing of the cancellation call seems questionable at best:
“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…” she pauses. “That says something.”
She went on to say, “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. … So that tells you the uphill battle that we had been fighting since day one, when your executive is literally proud to tell you that he didn’t watch it.”
But things may have seemed to be going well. Deadline editor-in-chief Nellie Andreeva writes, “I hear that virtually every day last week, the two studios on the Buffy reboot, 20th Television and Searchlight Television, touched base with the project’s producers and creative team, indicating that a pickup for the pilot starring Gellar and Ryan Kiera Armstrong seemed imminent after its writers, Nora and Lilla Zuckerman, had done a rewrite.”
Deadline‘s article includes a number of anonymous sources who say the pilot episode “played too young” and felt “small.” As writer Andreeva rather tartly (and correctly) notes, “It is unclear how exactly the pilot went through development, green light, casting and production without such concerns being addressed.”
But before the show got the axe, the Zuckermans’ rewrite was well-received by the studios. Reportedly, it was 90 minutes long, “more adult,” and had a lot more Buffy Summers in it.
One of Deadline‘s sources made a bananas metaphor about why the streamer still made the decision it did:
One source close to the project compared the situation to completing a $3M renovation only to find out that the house has foundation issues. “Instead of fixing the foundation, you just walk away,” the person said about Hulu’s decision to not proceed with the reboot.
One wishes to point out that the studio built the whole house, and could have addressed its issues earlier.
Both studios involved in the show and the streamer Hulu are part of Disney. According to Deadline, it was Disney Television Group President Craig Erwich who made the call to kill the show, and multiple sources say Erwich is also the person Gellar was talking about. Interestingly, it turns out that, as of a Monday restructuring, Erwich has added oversight of 20th Television and 20th Television Animation to his remit. 20th Television owns the rights to Buffy and Firefly, among other things, and 20th Television Animation is developing the Firefly animated series that was announced this past weekend.
Multiple articles have said that Hulu may be considering next steps with Buffy; an earlier Deadline piece said the streamer “remains high on the Buffy IP and plans to regroup and mull a possible new incarnation of the beloved franchise.” Notably, there is no mention of whether or not Gellar would be involved.
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