On Friday, March 11th, Sarah Michelle Gellar – the scream queen, patron saint of Millennials worldwide, and cultural hood ornament – was at the SXSW Film & TV Festival premiere of her new movie, Ready or Not 2: Here I Come. It was her first time at SXSW and her first time on a big screen in almost 20 years. As Gellar put it, it was a "really big day." A fun day, that is, until she got a phone call.
"I was just about to take the stage in front of all the fans," Gellar recalled, speaking by phone on Sunday afternoon. "Hulu had decided not to move forward with the Buffy revival. Let me tell you, nobody saw this coming."
Since the series that made Gellar a star left the air in 2003, fans have been clamoring for Buffy Summers to come back. And she almost did. For several years, Gellar and Oscar-winning director Chloé Zhao have been working on a revival for Hulu and Searchlight Television.
"I've been asked since the day I left to return to Sunnydale," says Gellar, 48. "And it never occurred to me that it was something I was going to do. Then four years ago, Chloé, the witch that she is – and I say that as a good thing – comes into my life. In one meeting, she makes me say 'yes' to something I never saw on my radar. That was because of the deep love and commitment and passion she had for this character. It was like I was stepping back in time."
Gellar and Zhao filmed a pilot episode for what would have become a full series reboot, which would have brought back Gellar’s character and introduced a new slayer (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) to star alongside her.
"Chloé and I talked a lot," says Gellar, who loved where the show was headed. "The dialogue flew off the tongue. When I was on set, it was craziness. It was like, 'Oh, we're here. We're doing this.' I loved the duality that we had this new, younger slayer who was where Buffy was when the show started, and then we would pick up with where Buffy was now."
She adds, "And I'd like to use this moment also to say that Ryan Kiera Armstrong is a superstar. I'm gutted that no one will see her as a slayer."
Gellar does have some confusion over not only why the decision to pull back from the series was made, but as to the timing of the weekend's phone call.
"No one saw this coming, including the head of Searchlight [Pictures]," she says, noting her new film Ready or Not 2 is a Searchlight production, under the same corporate umbrella as the intended Buffy reboot on the television side. "And I got the call as we were stepping onto stage for the premiere of their own movie. And it’s also the weekend of Chloé going to the Oscars as a best director nominee for Hamnet. For them to call us on the Friday of what should have been Chloé's victory lap for an incredible film, and my world premiere of something that I worked very hard for is...," she pauses. "That says something."
Gellar says it was one person who killed the project. "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."
"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," says Gellar.
The morning after the Ready or Not 2 premiere, which debuted to strong reviews and an initial 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, Gellar filmed a video explaining to fans that the project was not moving forward. "It was tough. But it was also a chance for me to take in the love that I was being shown."
The fan reaction on social media was immediate and overwhelming, both in sheer numbers and in both heartbreak and rage, and love for both Buffy Summers and Gellar. And one comment pleading for Dolly Parton to step in. (Her production company actually produced the original series.)
"I wish there was a magic wand Dolly could wave. But don't blame Dolly for this one!" says Gellar.
"But the fans, they were the only reason we were doing this show in the first place," she says. "We were doing it because everybody loves it. So how do you do a show that's beloved with someone that doesn't love it?"
Gellar says she has spoken to Zhao, who attended the Oscars on March 15th. "Chloé and I are feeling the same things. Disappointment. We don't want to let the fans down. That hurts. Saddened at how it was handled and when it was handled. But I just said to Chloé, and I was very specific, I said, 'Sunday night, you put that crown on and you walk that red carpet and you take in all that love for what you worked for and forget the other stuff.' It’s important to me that this doesn’t take away from what we achieved and what she’s achieved. And there’s always so much more to do."
Asked what will become of the project, Gellar says it’s too soon to say. A source close to the project tells PEOPLE, “Disney owns the IP. As it stands today, it can’t go elsewhere. But that doesn’t mean the team behind the reboot, including Sarah and Chloé, Nora and Lilla Zuckerman [the screenwriters and executive producers], can’t take their talent and ideas elsewhere.” Additional sources say the door is open for more Buffy, and there’s a lot of love for the IP as Hulu is mulling over what a next step could look like.
Gellar says she’s read the comments, and she’s felt the love. She’s also heard from her OG Buffy castmates. “Every single one of them. No one more so than David Boreanaz. I spoke to him last night. It just shows the lasting relationship that we have."
"But Buffy is timeless," she says. "And the one thing I do want all these fans to know is that legacy is still there and this doesn’t diminish it. It doesn’t change it. That legacy is still there – for them."
