That “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” reboot that Chloé Zhao directed will finally not proceed. Sarah Michelle Gellar broke the news to fans on Instagram Saturday.
This is quite surprising considering Zhao had apparently already shot the 90-minute pilot episode, with Oscar winner Zhao, a self-professed lifelong Buffy fanatic, directing from a script written by Nora and Lilla Zuckerman (”Poker Face”).
Sources tell Deadline the pilot was “not perfect,” suggesting that Zhao’s creative sensibility might not have been the ideal fit for the reboot. Zhao is currently enjoying the acclaim that met “Hamnet.”
There were discussions about reworking the pilot, but ultimately Hulu decided not to move forward with it.
“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” was a supernatural drama that originally aired in the late ‘90s. It followed Gellar’s titular heroine, a high school student who discovers she is the latest in a long line of "Slayers"—a chosen individual with the mission of battling vampires, and other evil forces.
‘Buffy’ creator Joss Whedon was said to have zero involvement in the reboot — and that might have been the main problem as he was the brains behind the original series. He hasn’t worked in Hollywood since 2021 — that’s when a slew of misconduct allegations hit his way, subsequently derailing his career.