Sarah Michelle Gellar in 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer.' 20th Century Fox Film Corp. All rights reserved./Courtesy Everett Collection Logo text Sarah Michelle Gellar has a message for Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans upset about Hulu deciding to cancel the new project.
The actress was on SiriusXM’s Page Six Radio on Wednesday when she was asked about the controversy, which was sparked by the streamer deciding last week not to move forward with a sequel to the 1990s cult hit series directed by Oscar winner Chloé Zhao.
Host Evan Real said he hoped the scrapped pilot, directed by Zhao, leaks online. But Gellar had a different point of view.
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“I actually hope it doesn’t because then everyone’s going to have an opinion on this and that, and pilots are not finished,” said the actress, who’s currently making the media rounds promoting her new horror movie, Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, which opens this weekend. “It wasn’t done, right? It’s not like we did a season and finished it and then they shelved it. It’s not like when they made the Batgirl movie and didn’t [release] it. That movie was finished. You make a pilot — and I want to clarify this — we made a pilot [first instead of a full season] on purpose because there’s some new characters and you want to see how it goes. There are things you learn from it, and there are things you fix. Usually, [the first version of a] pilot doesn’t air … it’s a learning tool. The original Buffy pilot [had] nothing to do with the show. It was a different Willow. It was a very different show. But those are learning tools and that’s what a pilot is.”
Gellar noted that there’s a version of the Buffy reboot pilot script making the rounds online, and she hopes fans avoid reading it, and for the same reason.
“I’ve seen a version of the script out there,” she said. “It’s not actually correct. That stuff is really unfortunate and I ask fans if you see scripts — if you see it leaked — don’t watch it because you’re not getting our vision and all of that.”
Gellar added the reason she’s spoken out about the cancellation is that the Buffy reboot “deserves respect. And when I don’t see it being given the respect, then I have to stand up for that because that’s important to me.”
The actress concluded by telling fans, “There’s two things you can do if you want to make this right. You can go stream Buffy [and] go see my movie. That’s all we can do right now.”
Sources say the filmed reboot pilot (which was written by Nora and Lilla Zuckerman) simply wasn’t very strong. There was a rewrite to address the issues and the first episode draft in particular was improved. But when looking at the prospective season as a whole, the studio ultimately felt the revival effort wasn’t working and ruled against a pilot reshoot and series order.
On Wednesday, a Disney Entertainment Television spokesperson released this statement: “We have had a long and very successful relationship with Chloé, Sarah and Gail — their track records speak for themselves and they are incredible partners. Our decision not to move forward with a series order is not a reflection of our respect and admiration for the creative team, including Lilla and Nora.”
Previously, Gellar said the executive who scrapped the show (Disney Television Group president Craig Erwich, sources say) made a point of saying he never liked Buffy in the first place.
“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,” she said. “That’s very hard when you’re taking a property that is as beloved as Buffy, not just to the world, but to me and Chloé. 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.”
Gellar also previously said she spoke to Zhao about the decision. “Chloé and I are feeling the same things,” she said. “Disappointment. We don’t want to let the fans down. That hurts. Saddened at how it was handled and when it was handled. But I just said to Chloé, and I was very specific, I said, ‘Sunday night, you put that crown on and you walk that red carpet and you take in all that love for what you worked for and forget the other stuff.’ It’s important to me that this doesn’t take away from what we achieved and what she’s achieved. And there’s always so [much] more to do.”
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