With the release date of late 2026 now on the horizon, star Sarah Michelle Gellar and creator Chloé Zhao want to address a few things bout the upcoming return of everyone’s favourite Vampire Slayer, Buffy Summers.
Firstly, the series is set to be called Buffy the Vampire Slayer: New Sunnydale, cool name, and whatever you do, don’t call it a sequel. Or a reboot.
“It’s not a sequel, it’s not a reboot — it’s a continuation,” Gellar said on the Shut Up, Evan podcast.
To be fair to Gellar, I’m a bit confused… isn’t that still a sequel?
Anyway, according to Gellar, the new series will show what Buffy is doing now and what the world she lives in is, hence the ‘not a sequel’: “So it’s not a reboot, it’s not picking up with all of the same characters right away. It is not like a sequel… That’s why the name was even important to me — Buffy: New Sunnydale. It’s Buffy, but it’s also something else.”
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While Gellar had said for years she had no intent in coming back, she explains that she learned her lesson and now she wants to make sure the new show honours what went before and is a worthy continuation: “I’m not trying to be better. I just want to hold and honor the memory and what we created. I know sometimes that memory is conflicted for people about how they’re supposed to feel about it, but a lot of people put their blood, sweat, and tears into making what I think is an incredibly great show, and I’m incredibly proud of it.”
As for the show’s long-development, Gellar again wants to make it clear that this is so the show lives up to its legacy and is as good as it can be: “I know this seems like it’s taking a long time, and it’s because unless we are sure that it is exactly what we set out to do and that it makes sense to do it, we don’t want to sell you the legacy by not. When I know it’s perfect, then it will be out there, but I won’t do it unless I know it can be that.”
Showrunner and creator Zhao is also clear that, from the start, she knew this show had to carry on from the original series, which ended in 2003, saying: “You can never replace these characters. I would never allow that. And Sarah’s back. 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.”
As for who may and may not be returning, actress Eliza Dushku, who left the industry shortly after playing Faith the Vampire Slayer in the original series to become a therapist, has said that she will not be returning to the series but she remains grateful for the role and how important it is to so many people: ”I will not be in front of a camera again unless it’s in some capacity that is in service of my new work and passion,” she said when asked about a potential return as Faith.
“I’m so grateful that I could play a part in something so much bigger than me. It’s so iconic and still reaches people in a way that touches humanity. I’m really attuned to the fact that a piece of my former career and a series like that was therapeutic for so many, and in some way, I was already doing kind of therapeutic work.”
However, James Marsters, who played the (other) vampire with a soul, Spike AKA William the Bloody, has said that while he’s not back yet, there’s definitely interest.
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Speaking on Charisma Carpenter’s The Bitch is Back podcast, Marsters says that he hadn’t watched the original series in a long time but he did recently to get back into Spike’s headspace… what a strange thing to say if you weren’t coming back. “I had to go back and watch it just to ask myself, ‘Can you play that character again?’ Never mind the externals, can you internally get back to that psychology?” he said.
Carpenter then asks if he’s coming back and he replied, coyly: “I am not, I have no idea… let’s see, what can I say… There is interest in having me back.”
Of course, if he does return, there will need to be an explanation as to why he’s so much older looking, given that he was a vampire and shouldn’t age, that said, when we last saw him, he was about to face almost certain death in the Angel finale, so if he does return, there’s going to have have to be a lot of explaining what happened next, after all, we’ve been waiting for an explanation ever since that finale aired almost 22 years ago.
Thoughts? I know you have them and I wanna hear ‘em all!
Watch the clip of Marsters and Carpenter here:
Charisma: um, James? are you exclusively admitting that you’re a part of the reboot?
James: I am not, no, I have no idea, um, I, what can I say? let’s see… there is interest in having me back…
-oh, I think he’s coming back. pic.twitter.com/llENlszyul
— slayer dreams ☽ .⋆ ˖ ⬛ (@slayerxvampire) January 14, 2026
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Marc
Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….
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