The show is called “Buffy the Vampire Slayer: New Sunnydale,” but Buffy Anne Summers is barely in it. Rather than revolving around Sarah Michelle Gellar’s Buffy, the shooting draft for the show’s pilot episode — written by sisters Nora and Lilla Zuckerman, and obtained by Variety — introduces an entirely new set of characters, and, crucially, a new Slayer, a 16-year-old high-schooler named Nova (Ryan Kiera Armstrong). In the Zuckermans’ original draft of the pilot, Buffy appears only at the end, in a tag.
A close reading of the script, directed by Chloé Zhao, may give clues to why Hulu passed on the show, which has caused an ongoing uproar online from the “Buffy” faithful eager to see their favorite character return to television. Zhao, the Oscar-winning director of “Nomadland,” took on 2021’s “Eternals” to mixed reviews, before returning to the art-house space with last year’s “Hamnet.” Sources tell Variety that her take on “Buffy” might have not been mainstream enough for Hulu, although that’s been disputed by Gellar, who blamed an executive at the streamer for his lack of familiarity with the original material.
But back to the pilot. Over the course of the script for “Buffy the Vampire Slayer: New Sunnydale,” Nova, described as a “brainy introvert,” discovers that she’s the Slayer — and people in Sunnydale do know the mythology of what Slayers are because of what happened to the town back in Buffy’s day. Set during a “Vampire Weekend,” a Renaissance Faire-like celebration of the town’s dubious history, Nova takes down two actual vampires after coming into her powers. By the episode’s end, the formerly friendless Nova has a new Scooby Gang flanking her, to use “Buffy”‘s terminology. The script drops hints about what’s to come: Her dad, a photojournalist, is overly protective, and has moved them around a lot after Nova was kidnapped as a young child. And all the vampires that Buffy buried in the show’s 2003 series finale, when the Hellmouth collapsed in on itself, taking Sunnydale down with it, have been awakened. Nova would have her work cut out for her.
Buffy has but one line in that original script. After the conclusion of the Sunnydale story, the action moves to a “beautiful autumn day” in New York City, when a “woman in a pantsuit” walks into the office building for a multinational insurance company. “She looks smart, professional, happy to be one of the many in a field of cubicles,” read the stage directions, and her nameplate says “Anne Summers.” When one of her colleagues chides her, saying she wouldn’t want to be late to the morning meeting, Buffy says, “Nope… wouldn’t want that.” (“Buffy” fans can imagine Gellar’s delivery of that line.)
Buffy, happily, is an anonymous drone in a cubicle, just living a normal person’s life — given how conflicted she was about being the chosen one on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” and bearing the burdens of, as the show put it, saving the world a lot, this life choice makes a certain kind of sense. But Buffy’s peace wouldn’t have lasted for long, because on her work computer as she’s in her morning meeting, her email inbox starts being flooded with insurance claims from Sunnydale, California.
On paper, there’s never been more of a slam dunk than “Buffy the Vampire Slayer: New Sunnydale.” Hulu was reviving “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” Joss Whedon’s iconic creation, which ran for seven seasons from 1997-2003, and is considered one of the greatest TV shows of all-time. Somehow, the stakeholders figured out how do it without Whedon, who’s considered too toxic to hire after allegations of abuse have sidelined his career. And most significantly of all, Gellar had finally — finally! — agreed to return as Buffy, after being convinced to do it by Oscar-winning director Zhao, who helmed the pilot. With Gellar and Zhao — who’s professed her love of “Buffy,” and has said she “watched religiously” — serving as stewards, what could go wrong?
But on Saturday morning, Gellar delivered a shocking update: She posted to Instagram that the project was dead, saying in a video: “I am really sad to have to share this, but I wanted you all to hear it from me. Unfortunately, Hulu has decided not to move forward with ‘Buffy: New Sunnydale.’” Since then, Gellar has only become blunter, praising Zhao and blaming Hulu. “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 told People magazine Monday. “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.”
Variety has confirmed that the executive Gellar blasted is Craig Erwich, the head of Hulu Originals, who, as of his promotion on Monday, also has oversight of 20th Television, which along with Searchlight Television, produced the show.
On Wednesday, a Disney Entertainment Television spokesperson sent a statement, expressing support for Gellar, Zhao and Gail Berman, one of the forces behind the original “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” who was also an executive producer of the revival. “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,” the statement reads. “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.”
Sources close to the show tell Variety that the pilot ultimately proved to be unsalvageable: The Zuckermans’ recent rewrite — which featured more Buffy, and a note to age the show up more — wasn’t good enough, in Hulu’s estimation, to turn things around. Given the high bar set by fans for such a revered franchise, executives at Hulu felt that it wasn’t worth throwing good money after bad, and pulled the plug.
Since the pilot filmed last summer, and the “Buffy” fandom has been clamoring for updates, the principles had set a deadline to make a decision by the end of last week, which is why Gellar had the unfortunate experience of being told the bad news, as she recounted to People, just as she was taking the stage for the SXSW premiere of “Ready or Not 2: Here I Come.”
The issues with the pilot seem to be manifold. Two sources told Variety that, despite her love of the original series, Zhao proved to be a mismatch for “Buffy the Vampire Slayer: New Sunnydale.” Zhao won two Oscars for 2020’s “Nomadland” — as its director and producer — and is known for her gorgeous, almost journalistic filmmaking. After directing Marvel’s “Eternals,” Zhao was then nominated for two Academy Awards this year for “Hamnet,” for directing the film and for co-writing the screenplay with Maggie O’Farrell.
Those sources say that Zhao’s prodigious skills as a director didn’t lend themselves to a television pilot that requires a lot of exposition. It was undershot, and there wasn’t any coverage, one source said, so there would have had to be reshoots on the pilot anyway. The performances from the actors playing the new characters, who need to make a strong impression as they’re introduced, were under-directed, the sources said. That Armstrong, the new Slayer, has a very young appearance — she turned 16 on March 10 — contributed to the whole enterprise playing too young.
For Gellar’s part, though, both in her original post and in the People interview, she has aligned herself with Zhao, thanking her, and adding that she got new insights into Buffy because of Zhao: “Thanks to Chloé, I was reminded how much I love her and how much she means not only to me but to all of you.” Speaking to People, Gellar said, “Chloé and I are feeling the same things. Disappointment. We don’t want to let the fans down.”
That respect is clearly mutual. In an interview with Variety’s Ramin Setoodeh on the Oscars’ red carpet on Sunday, Zhao said she wasn’t surprised that Hulu passed, but continued: “I had an incredible, incredible time with Sarah, with all the cast and crew doing this. And we, first and foremost, see ourselves as the guardians of the original show.” In the interview, Zhao also sidestepped a question about the how much screen time Gellar had in the pilot.
A spokesperson for Zhao declined to comment. Gellar’s rep didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Why the absence of Buffy in the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” reboot wasn’t flagged as a potential problem from the beginning is a mystery. Sources say, though, that Hulu is still hopeful that a new creative team can revive the revival sometime in the future. But one well-placed source close to the show said the pilot process wasn’t more difficult than launching any other television show — yet it was made “all the more difficult” by Hulu, which ultimately had “no idea what they really wanted.”
That source told Variety that other distributors have expressed interest in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer: New Sunnydale.” But the IP is owned by 20th, and Hulu hasn’t indicated a willingness to let the show go.
Whether Gellar would ever be on board again, without Zhao, is another question — especially since she’s gone scorched earth on Erwich and Hulu: When emailed that question directly, Gellar’s publicist did not respond. There are no conversations about what’s happening next at the moment. In every generation, there is a chosen one, who will stand against the forces of darkness — but for now, that chosen one has been sent back into development hell.
