Sarah Michelle Geller breaks her silence on what killed the Buffy reboot. Sarah Michelle Geller, scream queen, patron saint to millennials worldwide, cultural hood ornament, vampire slayer emeritis, was at the South by Southwest film and TV festival premiere of her new movie, Ready or Not to Here I Come.
It was her first time at South by Southwest. It was also her first time on a big screen in almost 20 years. This was, as Geller says, a really big day, a fun day. Then she got a phone call. I was just about to take the stage in front of all the fans, Geller recalls, speaking by phone 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 Geller a star left the air in 2003, fans have been clamoring for Buffy Summers to come back, and she almost did. For several years, Geller and Oscar winning director Khloe Xiao have been working on a revival for Hulu and Searchlight Television.
I’ve been asked since the day I left the return of Sunnydale, says Geller, 48. And it never occurred to me that it was something I was going to do then four years ago. Chloe, 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. Geller and Jiao filmed a pilot episode for what would have become a full series reboot which would brought back Geller’s character and introduced a new Slayer Ryan Cure Armstrong to star alongside her. Chloe and I talk a lot says Geller who love 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 love the duality that we had this new younger Slayer who was where Buffy was when the show started and then we would pick up of where Buffy was now. She adds, “And I like to use this moment also to say that Ryan Kira Armstrong is a superstar.

I’m gutted that no one will see her as a slayer. Geller 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 To, is a Search Light 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, the premiere of their own movie. And it’s also the weekend of Khloe going to the Oscars as a best director nominee for Hamnet. for them to call us on a Friday what should have been Khloe’s victory lap for an incredible film and my world premiere something that I work very hard for is she pauses