‘Buffy’ Reboot With Sarah Michelle Gellar in Works at Hulu

Cue the Nerf Herder guitar riff: A Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot is in the offing.

Hulu is developing a follow-up to the cult favorite series, with original star Sarah Michelle Gellar attached. The new project comes from writers Nora and Lilla Zuckerman (Poker Face, Fringe) and 20th Television and is described as “the next chapter in the Buffyverse.” Oscar winner Chloé Zhao (Nomadland, Eternals) is set to direct.

Hulu and 20th TV declined comment.

Sources say the new Buffy would focus on a younger Slayer and that Gellar’s Buffy Summers would not be the central character. Although Buffy lore dictated that only one Slayer could exist at a time, its final season upended that notion with the awakening of hundreds of potential Slayers for the show’s endgame.

Gellar, who’s currently starring in Showtime’s Dexter: Original Sin, had said in the past that she wouldn’t be interested in a Buffy redo, but in a December interview, she said she was now open to the idea: “I always used to say no, because it’s in its bubble, and it’s so perfect,” she said during an appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show. “But watching Sex and the City [sequel And Just Like That] and seeing Dexter, and realizing there are ways to do it, definitely does get your mind thinking, ‘Well, maybe.’”

The Hulu project is the second Buffy reboot to emanate from 20th TV in the recent past. In 2018, the studio (which produced the original WB/UPN series) worked on a reboot with writer Monica Owusu-Breen and series creator Joss Whedon, but it didn’t get past development. Whedon — who has since been accused of mistreating actors on Buffy, its spinoff Angel and the Justice League feature film — is not involved in the Hulu show.

Nora and Lilla Zuckerman will executive produce the Buffy reboot with Zhao, Gellar, and the original show’s EPs Gail Berman, Fran and Kaz Kuzui of Suite B, and Dolly Parton via Sandollar. Parton wasn’t a credited executive producer on the original show, which ran from 1997-2003, but her Sandollar Television was one of its producers.

Nora and Lilla Zuckerman are repped by UTA and Lichter Grossman. Zhao is repped by CAA, Lichter Grossman and Ilene Feldman Management. Gellar is with CAA, Linden Entertainment and Yorn Levine. Berman and her company The Jackal Group are repped by Sam Fischer at Ziffren Brittenham.