Everyone Has a Different Take on Why the Buffy Reboot Died

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As a huge Buffy fan, I haven’t seen this level of disappointment since the gang kicked Buffy out of her own place! It’s really frustrating to hear that Hulu decided to scrap Buffy: New Sunnydale, especially since Chloé Zhao was leading the reboot and Sarah Michelle Gellar was on board. Now, everyone’s just pointing fingers and arguing, which is the last thing the fandom needs right now.

So, I was reading about the scrapped Buffy reboot pilot, and apparently, it didn’t go well at all. Word leaked to Variety that the issues weren’t the story, but how Chloé Zhao directed it – they said it felt too… minimal. Variety specifically said it was ‘undershot’ – meaning not enough camera angles – and the acting felt a bit lost because of it. They also barely showed Buffy herself! The showrunners, Lilla and Nora Zuckerman, were trying to fix it with rewrites, but it was no use. Apparently, someone decided that even reshoots wouldn’t save it, so they just canceled the whole thing. It’s funny, because the original Buffy pilot needed a lot of work too – they had to recast Willow with Alyson Hannigan and reshoot a bunch of stuff!

Sarah Michelle Gellar pointed to a Hulu executive as the reason for the show’s cancellation. She explained to People magazine that this executive openly disliked the original series and hadn’t even watched it, frequently reminding the cast and crew. Gellar learned about the cancellation while preparing for press for Ready or Not 2, which is produced by the same company as New Sunnydale. She noted that even the head of Searchlight Pictures was surprised by the decision. She found the timing particularly upsetting, as it happened right before Chloé Zhao was nominated for a Best Director Oscar for Hamnet. Gellar felt it was insensitive to deliver the news on a weekend meant to celebrate Zhao’s achievement and the premiere of her own hard-earned project.

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2026-03-19 01:56