Sharpen your stakes and prepare to dust some vamps. Hulu has set its sights on bringing Buffy the Vampire Slayer back from the grave and its bringing series star Sarah Michelle Gellar along for the ride!
More than twenty years after the original series ended its seven-year run, self-confessed Buffy addict Chloé Zhao (The Eternals) along with writers Nora and Lilla Zuckerman (Poker Face) has a reboot nearing a series order at Hulu according to Deadline tonight. The reboot hails from Buffy the Vampire Slayer studio 20th Television and Disney sibling Searchlight TV where Zhao has been under a first-look deal.
The trade reports the series is starting a writers room “soon”, a sign that the streamer and the studio has high expectations for the project going to series. What remains unclear yet is whether other original Buffy cast members would return; though that is considered likely.
Described as the next chapter in the Buffyverse, the new incarnation is executive produced by Gellar, Zhao, Nora and Lilla Zuckerman as well as the original series’ executive producers Gail Berman of the Jackal Group and Fran Kuzui & Kaz Kuzui via Suite B. Also executive producing the pilot is Dolly Parton whose company Sandollar was producer on the original.
Initially beginning in 1997 as a mid-season replacement, Buffy ran for five seasons on The WB before jumping ship for its final two-seasons to air on UPN. The series also spawned the hugely successful spin-off series Angel making its star David Boreanaz a household name in the process. The original series also starred Alyson Hannigan, Charisma Carpenter, James Marsters, Anthony Stewart Head and Nicholas Brendan.
