Sarah Michelle Gellar has revealed that she isn’t interested in reviving her iconic titular character from the hit supernatural television series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The Saturn Award-winning actress shared the news while speaking with SFX Magazine (via Movieweb).
During the interview, the 45-year-old Gellar was asked if she’s interested in reprising the role of Buffy. She responded: “I’m not. I am very proud of the show that we created and it doesn’t need to be done. We wrapped that up. I am all for them continuing the story, because there’s the story of female empowerment. I love the way the show was left: ‘Every girl who has the power can have the power.’ It’s set up perfectly for someone else to have the power. But like I said, the metaphors of Buffy were the horrors of adolescence. I think I look young, but I am not an adolescent.”
Buffy the Vampire Slayer ran for a total of 144 episodes over seven seasons, beginning in 1997 and wrapping 20 years ago, in 2003. The coming-of-age teen comedy-drama aired its first five seasons on The WB, before it moved to UPN for its final two seasons.
The narrative of the action show, which is based on the 1992 film of the same name, revolves around Buffy and her friends, the Scooby Gang. The group struggles to balance the fight against supernatural evils with their complex social lives at Sunnydale High School in the fictional city of Sunnydale.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer mixes complex, season-long storylines with a villain-of-the-week format; a typical episode contains one or more villains, or supernatural phenomena, that are thwarted or defeated by the end of the episode. Though elements and relationships are explored and ongoing subplots are included, the series focuses primarily on Buffy and her role as an archetypal heroine of the Slayer.
Gellar was joined on the show by co-stars Nicholas Brendon, Alyson Hannigan, Charisma Carpenter, Anthony Stewart Head, David Boreanaz, Seth Green, James Marsters, Marc Blucas, Emma Caulfield, Michelle Trachtenberg, Amber Benson, Eliza Dushku, Kristine Sutherland, Robia LaMorte, Bianca Lawson, Juliet Landau and Tom Lenk.
The immediate future of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer franchise remains uncertain. Disney, who now owns the rights to the series, reportedly halted developed a long-discussed revival led by Alias and Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. veteran Monica Owusu-Breen last summer.
Development on the revival reportedly stopped in part because Joss Whedon, the creator of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series and its spinoff show, Angel, has drawn criticism from former stars of both series for alleged abuses of actors behind the scenes. As a result, it’s not currently known if Disney currently has plans to move forward with the revival.
While Gellar isn’t interested in starring in a Buffy the Vampire Slayer revival, she is returning to genre television with the Paramount Plus show Wolf Pack. The supernatural teen drama television series is based on the 2004 book of the same name written by Edo van Belkom. The screen adaptation, which is set to be released on January 26, explores how small-town teens are connected to a sinister creature that’s unleashed by a catastrophic California wildfire.