The Buffy The Vampire Slayer reboot seemed too good to not get picked up, and yet, here we are. Shepherded by Sarah Michelle Gellar and Oscar-winner Chloé Zhao, the show seemed like a slam dunk: A vampire show arriving on the heels of the Oscar-winning blockbuster Sinners, directed by Oscar-winner Zhao, and starring Gellar. But in our ever consolidating entertainment business, artists are at the whims of people who might not know best and they are also the only game in town. According to Gellar, the Hulu braintrust left the show in the hands of an executive 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.” Speaking to People, Gellar explains what happened and why, laying the blame on an exec who probably should’ve worked on a different project.
Like many, “no one saw this coming, including the head of Searchlight [Pictures],” which produced Gellar’s new movie, Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come, and is also owned by Disney. Gellar says that she’s been “asked since the day I left to return to Sunnydale.” Though she was always resistant, “Chloé, the witch that she is” approached her about the reboot, and “in one meeting, she makes me say ‘yes’ to something I never saw on my radar.” Gellar continues to praise the direction of the show. “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 loved the duality that we had this new, younger slayer who was where Buffy was when the show started, and then we would pick up with where Buffy was now.”
But as she stepped on stage for the premiere of Ready Or Not 2, she got the call that the show had not been picked up. “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. “That says something.” In the end, Gellar laid the blame on the executive who would brag to the cast and crew about how Buffy wasn’t his cup of tea. “We had an executive on our show who was not only not a fan of the original,” she continues, “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.”
You know, maybe there just isn’t an executive in this world fabulous enough for a Buffy reboot.