Sarah Michelle Gellar has slammed a nameless Disney executive that she claims is responsible for killing the Buffy reboot.
News broke over the weekend that Hulu had decided to scrap the pilot and not move forward with the fresh take on the iconic series.
Fans around the world were left devastated, as was Gellar, who shared a heartbreaking statement expressing her disappointment.
In a new interview with People Magazine, Gellar goes into more detail about the failed reboot and shares insight into the chaos that went on behind the scenes as she tried desperately to bring the series back to life.
“No one saw this coming, including the head of Searchlight [Pictures],” she said, 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 said before taking a pause. “That says something.”
Insiders told Deadline that after some rewrites on the pilot everyone had expected the show to be given the green light, with discussions about moving forward still being held as late as last week.
However, Gellar said in the end that it was one person who killed the project and devastated fans of the series around the world.
“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,” said Gellar.
“But the fans, they were the only reason we were doing this show in the first place,” she added. “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?”