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"Buffy The Vampire Slayer" Reboot Is Officially Happening, Sarah Michelle Gellar Wants Zendaya As Lead

Gellar played the teenage vampire slayer throughout the supernatural drama's seven-season run from 1997 to 2003.

(L) Sarah Michelle Gellar on May 10, 2019 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Race To Erase MS) (R) Zendaya on June 08, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)

It's official! Fans are getting a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot. Joss Whedon’s original supernatural drama series ran for seven seasons from 1997 to 2003. The cult-favorite sci-fi show with Sarah Michelle Gellar in the lead was adapted from the 1992 film of the same name. Now Deadline confirms that the reboot of the show is in development at Fox 21 TV Studios, the cable/streaming division of 20th Century Fox TV, the studios behind the original series. Fans will recall the show was about high school student Buffy Summers who tries to live a normal life with her group of loyal friends while hunting and defending the world from supernatural creatures and villains.



 

Rumors of a Buffy The Vampire Slayer reboot first came to light in 2018 and that a Black actor could take the lead role. Some fans questioned whether a reboot was necessary. Gellar previously told PEOPLE, "At the end of the day, it's all about great storytelling. If a story lives on, then I think it should be told in any incarnation it can be told in." At a New York Comic-Con, there were rounds of audible boos heard when the reboot was discussed. Former costar David Boreanaz addressed the backlash, “Come on, guys. It’s a good thing. Let’s just embrace [it]. I’m very happy for them. They want to embrace a new generation, something new. " Boreanaz said at the panel moderated by Entertainment Weekly‘s Lynette Rice, according to multiple outlets. “Everybody wants old, they want to go back,” he continued. “Which I can understand: You want to see us back in these roles. It’s great, it’s cool [but] things move on, stories evolve, times change. I think it’s a great opportunity for a reboot like this to show where we are with society now, what you can do with technology. How you can explore those relationships with the same kinds of metaphors. I’m all for it. I think it’s fantastic. Good for them. I hope that it becomes huge and successful, and does what it does.”



 

So who would the actress who played the lead in the original show like to see reprise the role? According to Insider, in an interview for the book Into Every Generation a Slayer Is Born: How Buffy Staked Our Hearts, Sarah Michelle Gellar said she'd like to see Zendaya lead a reboot. "I vote Zendaya," she told author Evan Ross Katz in an interview for his new book which is a retrospective looking back on the classic show. Costar Julie Benz agreed with her choice. "That would be amazing," she replied of Gellar's Zendaya fan-casting.



 

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