Sarah Michelle Gellar Explains Why She Doesn't Want People To Read The 'Buffy The Vampire' Sequel Script

Sarah Michelle Gellar explained why she does not want people to read the leaked pilot script for the Buffy the Vampire sequel.

During an appearance on SiriusXM’s Page Six Radio, Gellar responded to host Evan Real’s desire that the scrapped pilot would leak online. While the most updated version of the script has not leaked online, an earlier version did.

Gellar addressed that earlier version saying, “I’ve seen a version of the script out there. It’s not actually correct. That stuff is really unfortunate and I ask fans if you see scripts — if you see it leaked — don’t watch it because you’re not getting our vision and all of that.”

In regards to the most updated version of the pilot and the script, Gellar explained why she doesn’t want it to leak and why she doesn’t want people watching or reading it as well. She said, “I actually hope it doesn’t because then everyone’s going to have an opinion on this and that, and pilots are not finished.”

“It wasn’t done, right? It’s not like we did a season and finished it and then they shelved it. It’s not like when they made the Batgirl movie and didn’t [release] it. That movie was finished. You make a pilot — and I want to clarify this — we made a pilot [first instead of a full season] on purpose because there’s some new characters and you want to see how it goes. There are things you learn from it, and there are things you fix,” she elaborated. “Usually, [the first version of a] pilot doesn’t air … it’s a learning tool. The original Buffy pilot [had] nothing to do with the show. It was a different Willow. It was a very different show. But those are learning tools and that’s what a pilot is.”

Gellar announced the show had been axed by Hulu in an Instagram post back on March 14th. She said, “Unfortunately, Hulu has decided not to move forward with Buffy: New Sunnydale.”

Then in an interview with People on Sunday, March 15th, she shared more details about the show and why it was canceled.

On the show, Gellar said, “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.”

“And I’d like to use this moment also to say that Ryan Kiera Armstrong is a superstar,” she added. “I’m gutted that no one will see her as a slayer.”

As for why it was scrapped, she said, “No one saw this coming, including the head of Searchlight [Pictures].”

However, she then added, “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,” she said.

Following Gellar’s interview with People, Deadline’s Nellie Andreeva claimed that a pickup for the show was expected after writers Nora and Lilla Zuckerman did a rewrite and put in more Buffy Summers. However, Craig Erwich, who runs the Disney Television Group chose to scrap the show. Andreeva claims that Erwich is the executive that Gellar referred to who did not like the original show.

Scooper John Rocha claims that it wasn’t Erwich or any other unnamed executive that killed the show, but rather it was just simply bad. He wrote on X, “So I reached out to a couple of TV sources behind the scenes and they both confirmed to me that it was just a BAD pilot.”

“They also told me that Hulu STILL wanted to put it on the air so badly that they almost picked it up. It wasn’t some big, bad, CONVENIENTLY UNNAMED Hulu exec who killed it,” he added. “My guess is that cooler heads prevailed once they all saw how bad it was and decided not to put it out to save the Buffy brand from damage which was smart. Maybe SMG and the studio came up with this phantom Hulu exec excuse to cover up her EPing a bad show to save her personal brand as well. It happens sometimes in Hollywood, y’all.”

After this, Variety’s Kate Arthur shared that inside sources informed her that the brunt of the blame lays on director Chloe Zhao. She reported, “Zhao proved to be a mismatch for ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer: New Sunndaydale. … Those sources say that Zhao’s prodigious skills as a director didn’t lend themselves to a television pilot that requires a lot of exposition. It was undershot, and there wasn’t any coverage, one source said, so there would have had to be reshoots on the pilot anyway. The performances from the actors playing the new characters, who need to make a strong impression as they’re introduced, were under-directed, the sources said.”

Additionally, Arthur shared, “Sources tell Variety that her take on “Buffy” might have not been mainstream enough for Hulu.”

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