Sarah Michelle Gellar Received The Perfect Wrap Gift For The Buffy Reboot

The “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” reboot has not yet been ordered to series — as far as we know — but the pilot wrapped production this summer. That puts the ball in Hulu’s court, or, alternatively, a different distributor. But even just in the production arc of the pilot, there was plenty of love and nostalgia shown for the original series, with star Sarah Michelle Gellar getting a particularly poignant wrap gift from director Chloé Zhao.

A self-professed superfan of the original series, Zhao was excited to help helm the reboot, which is really more of a direct sequel series set 25 years after the end of “Buffy” Season 7. Speaking with journalist Lauren Veneziani, Zhao explained that during pilot’s production, she learned Gellar hadn’t kept the “Class Protector Award” Buffy receives after graduating high school in Season 3 — a golden umbrella gifted by her classmates in acknowledgement of the many times she saved their lives, though most of them didn’t understand the full circumstances. It’s one of the show’s more touching moments, and one of the best “Buffy” episodes. Out of respect for Gellar, Zhao and the production team had a replica of the award created, which they presented to Gellar after wrapping the pilot.

Zhao even delivered the full speech originally spoken by Danny Strong’s Jonathan Levinson. “I did the whole thing,” Zhao told The Wrap, explaining how meaningful the moment was for her as a diehard fan of the show. “It was amazing. Some of the crew members were like, ‘What’s happening?’ But the ones that know the speech … I had such a good time doing that.”

As previously stated, though it’s been widely referred to as a reboot, the new “Buffy” series is a direct successor to the original show, presumably ignoring the events of the spin-off “Buffy” comics. The new series is intended for streaming on Hulu, though there’s yet to be an official, public series order, meaning that the 2026 window many had hoped for will likely be bumped to 2027, presuming the show gets picked up. A Deadline report from July claimed that a writers room might be convening in March if the series order arrives.

So far, Gellar is the only former “Buffy” star confirmed to be returning, though it would make sense for others to join her. Ryan Kiera Armstrong, of “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew” and, more recently, Hulu’s spectacular Sterlin Harjo dramedy “The Lowdown,” is playing new slayer Nova, who’s described as a more reserved and introverted counterpart to Buffy, who will act as her mentor. Other new cast members include Kingston Vernes, Faly Rakotohavana, Ava Jean, Daniel Di Tomasso, and “Severance” Season 2 breakout Sarah Bock.

Sarah Michelle Gellar has said that while the show will obviously include a lot of material for longtime fans, it won’t require prior familiarity with the original series for new fans to understand.