Buffy the Vampire Slayer herself, Sarah Michelle Gellar, has said that the series’ upcoming reboot will be more than just a means to revisit the past, while emphasizing that the fresh project will still honor the original show.
Speaking to IGN, Gellar said that the Buffy revival would be “meaningful” to fans of the original who loved its focus on found family — which, back in the day, meant Buffy’s loyal group of friends.
The upcoming Buffy reboot introduces a new Slayer, played by Star Wars: Skeleton Crew’s Ryan Kiera Armstrong, and a new cast of characters that include a fresh batch of high school classmates. Gellar herself, however, will still appear in a recurring role, including within the show’s pilot episode, and act as an executive producer.
“Fandoms like Buffy still resonate today — because it’s not just about the show, but about the community that’s grown around it,” Gellar told IGN.
“For me, the heart of Buffy was always about found family — that sense of belonging and being loved for who you are — and that’s more important now than ever. That’s what makes this new chapter so meaningful, it’s not just revisiting the past but honoring the show’s original DNA. The fact that people still carry such love for the show after all these years is incredibly special.”
Alongside work on the new Buffy reboot pilot, filming of which is now underway, Gellar is currently overseeing another 90s revival, eBay ’95, a 1990s-themed eBay sale event for the online auction site’s 30th birthday this week. Her partnership involves curating a list of the 30 sought-after collector’s items from the decade, with all proceeds benefiting Make-A-Wish.
Items in the list include a 1999 Charizard Holo 1st Edition Shadowless Pokémon Trading Card, a Red Card Wave Luke Skywalker Jedi Brown figurine, a Spider-Man #1 Gold Torment Variant comic signed by Stan Lee and Todd McFarlane, and a LEGO Black Knight Dungeon Master’s Castle set.
“Everyone is passionate about something, maybe it’s LEGO, trading cards, or comic books, and all of these things still bring people joy,” Gellar said of the auction. “And at the heart of it, that’s what fandom really is – finding a community of people who love the same things you do. Pairing this curation with Make-A-Wish, a charity so close to my heart, made it a no-brainer.”
Gellar told IGN she was “sworn to secrecy” on further details of the new Buffy series, a sentiment she continued in a fresh post on Instagram sharing a handful of new behind the scenes photos from the pilot episode’s production. The images show Gellar with the series’ direct Chloé Zhao, as well as the actress holding an original Buffy the Vampire Slayer figurine (speaking of, Gellar has signed another figurine, and a Buffy Funko Pop, as part of the auction).
The images also show a note from Zhao to the reboot’s pilot’s cast, shared on what looks to be a call sheet for the shoot’s first day of filming.
“Let’s embark on this adventure together with joy, empathy, curiosity and respect,” Zhao wrote. “Life is both beautiful and difficult. We will be rewarded and tested. We will be brave. We will live to the fullest and know that we are never alone. We will always have each other. Happy first day! Chloé.”
The new Buffy reboot is being produced by Hulu, which is yet to formally announce if the pilot will be picked up for a full series. If it does, the series is expected set to go into full production next spring. For now, there’s no word yet on any further returning characters other than Buffy herself, but Gellar has previously said she hopes to see other classic characters return. Indeed, Buffy actress Charisma Carpenter has already told IGN she’d be keen to appear, after an “unjust” end to her character on spin-off Angel.
Image credit: Sarah Michelle Gellar
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
