Sarah Michelle Gellar talks returning to Buffy and if she’d be up for it

Although we heard almost three years ago that a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot/sequel series was in the works (here), we’ve heard very little since.

The new series was set to be a continuation of the original iconic series and would see a new Slayer step up to save the world to fill the ‘Into every generation, a slayer is born: one girl in all the world, a chosen one’ prophecy.

At the end of the original series Buffy Summers, Sarah Michelle Gellar, had created an army of Slayers to fight the ultimate evil and seemingly ending the ‘chosen one’ situation and replacing it with an army of super soldiers to take on the evil in the world.

However, the new series, much like the sequel comic series Fray, would see a world where all Buffy’s hard work would be undone and a new Slayer would have to step up.

Late last year original series star Amber Benson, who played Tara, said of the new series, which was being developed by Agents of SHIELD’s Monica Owusu-Breen, that it would have been exciting to see a new slayer step up: “I was so excited because Joss [Whedon] was involved, a woman of colour was going to be running the show, and [the lead] was going to be a woman of colour. I thought that was really important.

“I would very much like to see Buffy in a diverse world. I think it would be a really amazing thing.”

The issue here could be that Joss Whedon has recently become something of a pariah in Hollywood given some pretty harrowing claims against him, which means that the show may have stalled before it even got off the ground.

However, one person who seems not too worried is the original Slayer herself (yes, we know Kristy Swanson played her first in the movie) Sarah Michelle Gellar.

In a new interview, the star has said there was never any danger of her picking up the stake, saying she was a “wee bit, how do they say, long in the tooth for that [and] way too tired and cranky to put in that work again.”

The star reflected on the original show being “a metaphor for the horrors of adolescence” which would rule her out as returning, but she did add that a new Slayer could be a fun thing to explore: “It’d be interesting to see how a chosen one would deal with that. I don’t think it’s me, I don’t think I should be the one doing it.”

Gellar has distanced herself from Whedon recently, as have several other stars, so her wanting to work with him on a new show is pretty unlikely anyway. The show was definitely being developed by 20th Century Fox at that stage and it was with Whedon’s involvement… that is all on shaky ground now, I’d imagine.

That said, Gellar was unlikely to be the focus of the new show – I saw her involvement, if anything, being to pass the torch from one warrior o another – but I still think it would be wrong to develop a Buffy follow-up without Buffy… or maybe that’s just me?

Anyways, let me know your thoughts and, while you’re here, why not check out my list of Buffyverse shows we almost got during the show’s heyday here.