Hulu and 20th TV declined comment.
Sources say the new Buffy would focus on a younger Slayer and that Gellar's Buffy Summers would not be the central character. Although Buffy lore stated that only one "Slayer" could exist at a time, the final season upended that idea with the awakening of hundreds of potential Slayers for the series' endgame.
Gellar, who’s currently starring in Showtime’s Dexter: Original Sin, had said in the past that she wouldn’t be interested in a Buffy redo, but in a December interview, she said she was now open to the idea: “I always used to say no, because it’s in its bubble, and it’s so perfect,” she said during an appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show. “But watching Sex and the City [sequel And Just Like That] and seeing Dexter, and realizing there are ways to do it, definitely does get your mind thinking, ‘Well, maybe.’”
The Hulu project is the second Buffy reboot to come from 20th TV in recent memory. In 2018, the studio (which produced the original WB/UPN series) was working on a reboot with writer Monica Owusu-Breen and series creator Joss Whedon, but it didn't progress beyond development. Whedon — who has since been accused of assaulting actors in Buffy, its spinoff Angel and the feature film Justice League — is not involved in the Hulu series.
Nora and Lilla Zuckerman will executive produce the Buffy reboot with Zhao, Gellar and the original series' executive producers Gail Berman, Suite B's Fran and Kaz Kuzui, and Dolly Parton via Sandollar. Parton was not an executive producer of the original series, which ran from 1997-2003, but her Sandollar Television was one of the producers.
