Reboot fever is raging throughout Hollywood, but not every case is symptomatic. Occasionally, a network can make a big to-do about bringing a franchise back from limbo, only to back off after the last second, often after a pilot has been shot. It happened in 2011 with Wonder Woman starring Adrianne Palicki, it happened in 2023 with a live-action Powerpuff Girls series, and it happened just last year with a gender-swapped remake of Holes.
Now, the latest casualty is Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The Joss Whedon classic monster-of-the-week series was given a splashy reboot announcement, with young Skeleton Crew star Ryan Kiera Armstrong introduced as the next slayer. But in a recent video, Sarah Michelle Gellar revealed Hulu decided not to go forward with the pilot. Details were scarce, but a rumored script leak gives us a glimpse as to what we could have seen.
The Slayer Leak That (Allegedly) Reveals Everything
A leaked script released on Reddit claims to be a draft of the canceled pilot. While there’s no proof that it’s real, leaked set photos of a vampire-themed festival called “Vampire Weekend” seem to match it exactly, so it’s likely this is at the very least one version of what was going to be put on screen. In the script, a young girl named Nova starts school at New Sunnydale. In the modern day, Sunnydale’s vampiric reputation is now a tourist draw more than a real threat, and Buffy Summers is considered a mythical figure.
Much like the original series, there are also a number of jokes, and in the reboot, they are mostly aimed at the new Gen-Z demographic. Nova reacts to her new slayer powers by saying, “I...unalived him,” and when the Big Bad is revealed, part of his motivation is “because being woke is exhausting.” This is even lampshaded when Nova first tries out her Slayer powers, saying, “I keep forgetting to quip!”
Buffy Reboot Pilot Apparently Held Buffy Until the End
But the biggest issue with this supposed Buffy reboot is the sheer lack of Buffy. She doesn’t come back until the final moments of the pilot, when it’s revealed Buffy has been living under the name “Anne Summers” and has made a life for herself as a lowly insurance agent. Instead of being present to mentor Nova, she is established completely separately, presumably to be incorporated in a later episode.
This repeats a concerning pattern we see often in streaming TV — slow pace and dragged-out reveals to keep audiences coming back. Thanks to a viral tweet, this pattern has a name: “Surf Dracula.” Basically, a broadcast show entitled Surf Dracula would have Dracula surfing every episode, while a streaming show wouldn’t show Dracula surfing until the last five minutes.
That’s exactly the issue with this pilot. Buffy is only a tease, and we spend much of the runtime getting to know a host of brand-new characters, which is a lot of housekeeping for the first impression.
If this really is a version of the pilot script, then perhaps this is the best choice for the show’s legacy. As exciting as Buffy returning is, it’s only worth it if it’s done right.
UPDATE 3/17: A new report from Deadline revealed that the pilot that Hulu passed on was actually a rewrite that involved much more Buffy than the initial draft this leak presumably is. So even after slaying the Surf Dracula, Buffy still can’t come back.
