News Buffy the Vampire Slayer Sarah Michelle Gellar Says Chloé Zhao Wants to “Revisit,” Not “Reinvent,” Buffy the Vampire Slayer Zhao has been a Buffy fan for decades and is directing the pilot. By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on November 19, 2025 Screenshot: 20th Century Fox Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: 20th Century Fox The Buffy the Vampire Slayer sequel series is moving ahead with its pilot order at Hulu, and its director Chloé Zhao as well as Buffy herself, Sarah Michelle Gellar, are slowly revealing some details about the project. In an interview with Vanity Fair to promote her movie Hamnet, Zhao showcased her bona fides as a decades-long Buffy fan and said she saw the series as being “about found family” and that, over twenty years since the original show’s finale, “we thought it may be time for a new wave of monsters and vampires and demons that we get to learn about our humanity through.”   The article also confirmed, with a statement from Gellar, that the new show is not a reboot. Gellar, in an email to Vanity Fair, described it as a series “coming from [Zhao,] the true fan that is desperate to revisit the world, not reinvent.” The actor also stated that it was Zhao who got her on board to begin with, calling her a visionary who, she wrote, has “an international eye which broadens the scope of what we can achieve.” However, Zhao has noted that characters from the original series will be coming back to this not-a-reboot (call it sequel, call it a revisit, call it a revival instead). She didn’t specify who exactly beyond Gellar, though Zhao and Gellar have both been tight-lipped about how she’ll fit into the new show’s story. One thing that’s clear is that Zhao takes Buffy seriously and is a true fan. “You can never replace these characters. I would never allow that,” Zhao recently told Variety. “I love my cast, the new cast. We will bring back OG characters for sure. And it is a show that bridges two generations—it’s not just about the kids. I think the fandom is so important to us. We want the fandom to see themselves mirrored in the original fandom. And of course, we want new fans to join, and it’s very much about both generations.” No news yet on whether the new series will move beyond the pilot order, but here’s to keeping our fingers crossed. [end-mark] The post Sarah Michelle Gellar Says Chloé Zhao Wants to “Revisit,” Not “Reinvent,” <i>Buffy the Vampire Slayer</i> appeared first on Reactor.