Sad news for Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans today. Sarah Michelle Gellar has just announced in a video on social media that new continuation series, Buffy: New Sunnydale, won’t be moving forwards.
“So I’m really sad to have to share this but I wanted you to hear it from me” Gellar begins. “Unfortunately Hulu has decided not to move forward with Buffy: New Sunnydale.” The OG star of the series goes on to thank Academy Award-winning director Chloé Zhao for her work over the last four years in trying to bring the series back to our screens.
Watch Gellar’s emotional statement in full below:
There’s no official word from Hulu as to why the series wasn’t picked up but Deadline reports that the pilot was “not perfect” with insiders citing that Zhao’s filmmaking sensibilities may not have been a great fit with the franchise. The trade notes that Hulu is still keen to get a Buffy project off the ground and plans to regroup and form a new plan.
A pilot episode was shot in summer 2025 with little said about the series since. Gellar did discuss continuing to perfect the series in an appearance on the Shut Up Evan podcast, discussing how no series would come to air unless she felt it was the perfect way to carry on the legacy of the original series. Though there was reportedly some internal discussion on reworking the pilot the streamer ultimately decided to move on from the project.
Buffy: New Sunnydale was set to star Gellar who returns as OG series slayer Buffy Summers and Ryan Kiera Armstrong who was to star as the new slayer Nova, an introverted high-school student who discovers she is a Slayer. Also set to star as series regulars were Faly Rakotohavana, Ava Jean, Sarah Bock, Daniel Di Tomasso and Jack Cutmore-Scott as well as guest star/recurring Kingston Vernes.
