Sarah Michelle Gellar has outgrown “Buffy”

Hollywood isn’t exactly known for its tact. The film and television industries are cutthroat, and as much as Los Angeles is regarded as a town where dreams come true, splashed across neon-lit marquees, it’s also the place where dreams go to die a swift, painful death. But Tinseltown’s latest casualty is a particularly cruel slaying, one whose wooden stake pierced the hearts of millions of devoted fans and two of the business’ highly respected, powerful players. On March 14, Sarah Michelle Gellar posted a video on Instagram, revealing that the highly anticipated revival of her star-making, enormously beloved and culturally persistent series, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” — helmed by Oscar-winning director Chloé Zhao — was dead in the water.

“I am really sad to have to share this, but I wanted you all to hear it from me,” Gellar began. “Unfortunately, Hulu has decided not to move forward with ‘Buffy: New Sunnydale.’ I want to thank Chloé Zhao, because I never thought I’d find myself back in Buffy’s stylish yet affordable boots, and thanks to Chloé, I was reminded how much I love her, and how much she means not only to me, but to all of you. And this doesn’t change any of that. And, I promise, if the apocalypse actually comes, you can still beep me.” Not exactly the most uplifting news when it feels like the apocalypse is just outside our doors.

As brutal as the news was, it was hardly a surprise. It’s not uncommon that networks won’t pick up a pilot for a full-season order, even after the pilot has been completed. It’s the nature of a fierce industry, and one that Gellar knows all too well. (In 2016, she reprised her role as Kathryn Merteuil in the pilot for a “Cruel Intentions” spinoff that didn’t move forward.) But what was shocking about this news was how the hammer came down, and when. Gellar posted her video on March 14, but got the call that Hulu wouldn’t be moving forward the night before, just before the March 13 premiere of “Ready or Not 2: Here I Come” at SXSW.

“No one saw this coming, including the head of Searchlight,” Gellar told People Magazine. (Searchlight Pictures produced both “Ready or Not 2” and the “Buffy” revival.) “I got the call as we were stepping onto stage for the premiere of their own movie. And it’s also the weekend of Chloé [Zhao] going to the Oscars as a best director nominee for ‘Hamnet.’ For them to call us on the Friday of what should have been Chloé’s victory lap for an incredible film, and my world premiere of something that I worked very hard for is . . . That says something.”

What the move and its timing say, among other things, is that the executives behind the decision don’t fully understand or appreciate Gellar’s enormous value and appeal. With four decades of experience under her belt and more enduring roles than most actors get in an entire career, Gellar has long proven herself a formidable presence across film and television. Through a proprietary mixture of light nostalgia baiting and ever-present curiosity, Gellar has achieved a rare type of icon status — a superstar who owns her legacy, but isn’t willing to rest on her laurels. Even more importantly, she’s an actor with legions of fans who will follow her anywhere and watch anything that she’s in.

And yet, Gellar has gotten the shaft time and again, unable to fully break free from the characters she’s known for to craft a new on-screen persona that fans can fall in love with. It’s an unusual spot to be in, caught between the past and future, while never being able to relish the present. That’s precisely why the “Buffy” reboot not going forward could very well be the best thing to happen to Gellar’s career in some time — if fans and the industry allow her to play her cards right.

(99 JOHN FAGERNESS/Online USA, Inc/Getty Images) Sarah Michelle Gellar filming “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”

Wrangling Gellar free from her inadvertent nostalgic trappings is no simple task. In recent years, Gellar’s career has seen a notable resurgence, largely thanks to journalists-turned-influencers like Evan Ross Katz holding Buffy Summers as their holy grail, and a new generation of younger viewers discovering “Buffy” as the show has bounced between streaming services. When Netflix still possessed the streaming rights — and I watched things on the platform via an archaic interface you could access by inserting a disc into the Nintendo Wii — I pressed play on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” eager to indulge in what used to scare me, channel surfing as a kid. By the end of the pilot, I was a “Buffy” convert. By the end of the first season, I was a fanatic. And by the end of the series, I was an evangelist.

“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” still connects with so many people because it empowers its outcasts and misfits. The severity of seemingly mundane, everyday anxieties — school bullies, the prom, graduation, obnoxious Cher-obsessed college roommates — is on par with demons trying to hasten the apocalypse. The series boasts both monster-of-the-week camp and some of the most moving writing and audacious character arcs that have ever graced the small screen. It’s a life-changing, must-watch show. It’s no shock that fans can’t seem to let it go, even 23 years after its series finale.

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The problem is that’s the kind of value that makes Scrooge McDuck dollar signs bug out of Hollywood executives’ heads. Of course, Disney, which currently owns the rights to the property, wants to try to revive “Buffy” — especially when the monoculture is stuck in an endless loop of wistfulness for the past, dreaming of simpler days and hokey WB network promos. But it’s Gellar who makes and breaks “Buffy.” There is no show without her. And, as much as I hate to unwittingly side with network executives, a new iteration that featured Gellar as anything other than its shining star wouldn’t have the dynamism of the original series. As someone who wakes up in a cold sweat every night, terrified by the looming possibility that “The Devil Wears Prada 2” may be awful, trust me: Sometimes it’s better to leave well enough alone. Even if it’s deeply cruel to have dragged Gellar, Zhao and millions of fans’ hopes out this far, the “Buffy” legacy has been tainted enough as it is by Joss Whedon’s fingerprints. The last thing this phenomenal series needs is another blemish on its reputation, especially an entry to “11 Reboots That FAILED Disastrously” clickbait listicles until the end of time.

But now that “Buffy” is no more, where does that leave Gellar? It’s unfortunate that the “Buffy” news has consumed much of the “Ready or Not 2” press tour, as it threatens to distract from what makes Gellar’s role in Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett’s sequel to their uber-fun 2019 horror thriller such a delight. Although she’s popped up in some fun cameo spots here and there, this is Gellar’s first major film role in 15 years, and it’s poised to make audiences remember why she’s so easy to root for, even when she’s despicable.

(Searchlight Pictures/Pief Weyman) Sarah Michelle Gellar and Shawn Hatosy in “Ready or Not 2: Here I Come”

As Ursula Danforth, one of the two siblings hunting down poor, beleaguered bride-to-never-be, Grace (Samara Weaving), in hopes of killing her in a satanic sacrifice, Gellar gets to lean back into her bad side. Ursula has shades of Gellar’s famous characters — Buffy’s physical ferocity, Kathryn Merteuil’s ruthless cattiness, Daphne Blake’s affinity for mysterious games — but doesn’t play to one exclusively. It would be an easy win to cast Gellar in a reskin of one of her renowned characters, but “Ready or Not 2” happily doesn’t play it so safe. However, that sentiment also applies to how Ursula’s character arc shapes up. And while I won’t reveal that detail here, it’s safe to say that this spoiled satanist is more of a toe being dipped back into the water, and not a full-fledged cannonball into the deep end that could make Gellar’s performance the film’s splashiest element.

Granted, Gellar is only just getting back into acting at this scale. She stepped away from the industry after Robin Williams, her co-lead in the short-lived but promising series, “The Crazy Ones,” died in 2014. In 2022, while promoting her (also brief) show “Wolf Pack,” Gellar said that she felt it was the right time for a sabbatical, when she could focus on her family. Now, Gellar has made a more ceremonious return, albeit with a frustrating stop-and-start stammer. “Wolf Pack” was axed by Paramount+ in early 2024 after just one season. That same year, Gellar landed what should’ve been a juicier role in Showtime’s “Dexter” prequel series, “Dexter: Original Sin,” that turned out to be a nothingburger — not that it mattered much, since that series was also canceled after one season. If Gellar didn’t have such a spellbinding screen presence, one might think she was the common denominator factor in all of these failed series.

But it’s not that these shows are weak because of Gellar; it’s that she’s the only thing that makes them interesting. Gellar is television royalty, and as such, fans will watch her in just about anything. On the other hand, Gellar wields a double-edged sword: “Buffy” helped shape the landscape of modern TV, but it’s because the show was and is so popular that the role sticks to her no matter where she goes. (Call it Three-Named Sarah Syndrome, a condition Sarah Jessica Parker also suffers from thanks to “Sex and the City.”) The passionate “Buffy” fandom is part of the reason why gossip about a potential reboot has been floating around for years, and why Zhao’s pilot got the OK to shoot in the first place. When an actor is so beholden to one role, it doesn’t just limit their creativity, but their perspective, too.

Ironically, Gellar is back in a place that she’s been before. The first time “Buffy” ended, Gellar attempted to shake off the slayer with a slew of fascinating, genuinely provocative roles that utilized her skillset. In 2006’s post-9/11 American gothic, “Southland Tales,” Gellar played a pop-porn-reality star contending with a country on the brink of collapse. Aside from Buffy Summers, it stands as her most ambitious and unforgettable role to date, a total 180-degree turn from the role that sent her to superstardom without feeling like an ex-Disney star, wandering around in the dark, stumbling toward something incendiary. Then there’s the bizarro mystery-thriller “Veronika Decides to Die,” where Gellar stars as a suicidal young woman who wakes up in an asylum, trying to contend with news that she really will die in the coming days. While not as perennial as her other work, it’s a film that points to Gellar’s continued interest in roles that are daring and opaque, far from the type of characters she’s been saddled with in recent years.

If there’s any time for Gellar to make a swinging comeback, it’s now. The chances of “Buffy” finding its way back to television anytime soon after this attempt at a revival turned into a headline-making spectacle are incredibly slim. Gellar has the chance to wave Buffy Summers goodbye, blow her a kiss and revisit her sometime in the future, if that time ever comes. But it’s not necessary. Really, it never was. The demand for actors to reprise their most famous roles for the sake of dredging whatever value — read: money — is left from the property has to die, along with this reboot. And while “Ready or Not 2” is a step in the right direction, it’s only a step. For seven well-loved seasons, Sarah Michelle Gellar was the chosen one. Now, it’s time for her to choose herself.