We learned last month that a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot was being planned for Hulu, and now we have an exciting update from Sarah Michelle Gellar, star of the original TV series, who has confirmed that she will be playing Buffy Summers again.
While admitting that things are progressing more quickly than she had anticipated, Gellar warns viewers that the new program won't simply materialize right away.
Speaking to People, Gellar stated, "We've set up our offices, which means things are progressing probably faster than I'd anticipated. But it's going to be a process, I think. To do it the way it needs to be done, everyone has to be patient with all of us, because this isn't something that [will just happen]."
As previously announced last month, Chloé Zhao (Nomadland, Eternals) will direct the pilot and executive produce the program, while sisters Nora and Lila Zuckerman (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Poker Face) will act as co-showrunners..
Gellar is also listed as an executive producer along with original executive producer of the show, Gail Berman.
On Zhao's involvement, Gellar exclaimed, "I pinch myself every day when I get into these rooms, and I'm looking at Gail Berman, the Zuckermans and Chloé Zhao. It's an incredible group."
"There was no world where I thought Chloé Zhao was going to call me and partner with me, and ask my advice on things and my opinion — especially because she hasn't done television. She'll call me, and she'll say, 'Well, I have to defer to you,' and I'm like, 'Wait, what?' Those aren't words I ever thought I would hear."
Elsewhere, Charisma Carpenter, who portrayed Cordelia Chase on Buffy and its spin-off show, Angel, was recently in attendance at Indiana Comic Con [via Collider], and told fans that she hopes she gets the call to appear in the reboot.
"I hope so. From what I understand, there isn’t even a pilot at the moment, so I hope — if I am involved — I hope so in some fashion it’s more in a substantive way. That would be my dream."
"I think it would be very poetic to be invited back, especially having the people that were involved to begin with, the best parts of it, Gail Berman, and then having Chloé Zhao direct — Oscar winner and, in general, badass [Laughs] — and then the Zuck sisters who are incredible writers and then obviously Sarah backing it and I hope to be part of it."
Details on the project are understandably scarce at the moment, given this early juncture, but it's been confirmed that while Gellar is returning, the show will focus on a new slayer, with Gellar's Buffy Summers appearing in a mentorship role.