Chloé Zhao 'Not Surprised' Her Buffy the Vampire Slayer Reboot Was Scrapped by Hulu

The manager and mastermind of Hulu's Buffy the Vampire Slayer continuation has said she's "not surprised" the bid has present been scrapped.

Talking to Variety past nighttime connected the Oscars reddish carpet, Academy Award victor Chloé Zhao said her precedence had ever been "to beryllium truthful" to the archetypal bid and that "things hap for a reason."

Sarah Michelle Gellar, the archetypal Buffy prima who was acceptable to reprise her cardinal quality successful the caller series, shared connection of Hulu's determination with fans implicit the weekend, to an outpouring of daze and disappointment. Shortly after, assorted reports connected the determination by Hulu suggested that differing opinions implicit the absorption of the bid betwixt Zhao and the streamer were to blame.

Deadline sources person described the aviator arsenic "not perfect" and suggested it was "Zhao's sensibility" that whitethorn not person been the close lucifer for the amusement astatine Hulu, without providing further explanation. For its part, meanwhile, Hulu is present reportedly considering a caller reboot, oregon immoderate different mode to proceed the franchise.

"I'm not surprised," Zhao said, successful her archetypal remark connected the now-scrapped project. "I had an unthinkable clip with Sarah, with the full formed and unit doing this and we, archetypal and foremost, spot ourselves arsenic the guardians of the archetypal show. Our precedence has ever been to beryllium truthful to the show, and beryllium truthful to our fans. So things hap for a crushed and we support our hearts unfastened and invited the enigma for what this whitethorn pb america to."

When pressed connected whether Zhao mightiness transportation the bid elsewhere, she simply repeated: "Welcome the mystery." (This seems unlikely, since the Fox-owned spot is presently being reconsidered by Hulu itself.)

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew histrion Ryan Kiera Armstrong, who would person portrayed the series' caller young lead, has besides offered her archetypal comments connected the amusement not moving forward, aft being announced with immoderate fanfare astir a twelvemonth ago. The histrion besides shared an representation of her character, captioned with "<3 your slayer."

"I'm definite galore of you person already heard the quality by now," Armstrong said, thanking fans for supporting her and the show. "I'm truly arrogant of what we did. I'm bittersweet that you guys won’t beryllium capable to spot it, but it doesn’t instrumentality distant from the astonishing acquisition that I had."

Armstrong went connected to convey Gellar, Zhao and the remainder of her erstwhile castmates, earlier finishing connected a much hopeful note. "I conjecture each I privation to accidental is, we brought this backmost for you guys and Buffy is specified a large portion of each of our lives, and it's not going anywhere. So, who knows what the aboriginal volition hold."

The caller Buffy aviator occurrence was filmed past summer, erstwhile its accumulation was wide reported connected and pored implicit by fans for much details of its communicative and setting. Gellar was intimately involved, aft being tempted backmost to her cult classical relation by Zhao's imaginativeness for the continuation. Still, it was reported that she had lone filmed a little and mysterious cameo for the pilot, with her quality acceptable to diagnostic much successful aboriginal episodes — which present volition not beryllium made.

Hulu had antecedently planned to aerial the bid aboriginal successful 2026, though further connection connected its improvement had been ominously quiescent successful caller months. Still, successful January, Gellar spoke retired to reassure fans that the hold was simply down to the series' originative squad moving to guarantee it was bully capable to not "sully the legacy" of the archetypal beloved show.

IGN antecedently spoke with archetypal Buffy the Vampire Slayer histrion Charisma Carpenter astir the caller series, who told america that she was "hopeful" for a New Sunnydale instrumentality aft an "unjust" extremity to her quality Cordelia.

Image credit: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You tin scope Tom astatine [email protected] oregon find him connected Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social