Buffy the Vampire Slayer is one of the best supernatural teen dramas of all time, and is a bonafide cult classic at this point. The original series (which is streaming with a Hulu subscription) is regularly re-watched by fans, and it's my favorite TV show ever. This is what made the news of the revival New Sunnydale's cancellation so devastating, especially after the streamer had previously announced it was getting a full season. I'm personally dying to see the scrapped pilot, but Sarah Michelle Gellar recently explained why she actually doesn't want people to see it.
SMG has been speaking since Buffy's cancellation, claiming an exec at Hulu wasn't a fan of the original and didn't want the revival to move forward. New information has been trickling out, including what the new Slayer would have looked like. But during a recent conversation with Page Six, the Cruel Intention actress explained why she hopes the pilot doesn't end up being released. In her words:
I hope it doesn’t. I actually hope it doesn’t. Because then everyone’s going to have an opinion on this and that. And pilots are not finished. It wasn’t done.
Touché. While fans like me would love to see how the story continued after Buffy's series finale, the pilot wasn't actually completed as planned. There were reports that coverage was missing, and that the story was reworked before New Sunnydale was eventually scrapped altogether. And Gellar doesn't want to the fans to see an episode that wasn't actually ready for the public's consumption.
SMG's comments show how much Buffy the Vampire Slayer's legacy means to her, even if the revival is no longer happening. In addition to not wanting fans to see the pilot, she's also speaking out against reading any leaked scripts from New Sunnydale. As she put it:
That stuff is really unfortunate. And I ask fans, if you see scripts, if you see [the pilot] leaked, don’t watch it. Because you’re not getting our visions and all of that.
Points were made. Reading a potential script very different than actually seeing what director Chloé Zhao would have actually brought to the table as a filmmaker. And in the end the pilot would have been just step one in a longer narrative for Buffy the Vampier Slayer: New Sunnydale. Alas, it looks like we'll likely never see that revival actually happen.
Buffy's seven-season run is streaming now on Hulu. New information about the scrapped pilot will likely keep trickling out, which shows how much fan investment there still is. Still, it seems unlikely that Hulu will change its mind.
