*New details here, including a synopsis of the pilot’s storyline in the article if you’re curious.
>The issues with the pilot seem to be manifold. Two sources told Variety that, despite her love of the original series, Zhao proved to be a mismatch for “Buffy the Vampire Slayer: New Sunnydale.”
>Those sources say that Zhao’s prodigious skills as a director didn’t lend themselves to a television pilot that requires a lot of exposition. It was undershot, and there wasn’t any coverage, one source said, so there would have had to be reshoots on the pilot anyway. The performances from the actors playing the new characters, who need to make a strong impression as they’re introduced, were under-directed, the sources said. That Armstrong, the new Slayer, has a very young appearance — she turned 16 on March 10 — contributed to the whole enterprise playing too young.
>Sources close to the show tell Variety that the pilot ultimately proved to be unsalvageable: The Zuckermans’ recent rewrite — which featured more Buffy, and a note to age the show up more — wasn’t good enough, in Hulu’s estimation, to turn things around. Given the high bar set by fans for such a revered franchise, executives at Hulu felt that it wasn’t worth throwing good money after bad, and pulled the plug.
Temp89 on
The new info they have:
>Those sources say that Zhao’s prodigious skills as a director didn’t lend themselves to a television pilot that requires a lot of exposition. It was undershot, and there wasn’t any coverage, one source said, so there would have had to be reshoots on the pilot anyway. The performances from the actors playing the new characters, who need to make a strong impression as they’re introduced, were under-directed, the sources said. That Armstrong, the new Slayer, has a very young appearance — she turned 16 on March 10 — contributed to the whole enterprise playing too young.
The script they’re going off of is an old and publicly available one based on the “Nova” name, but it was truly diabolically bad and unless they rewrote every line I doubt it could be good. It was like if Wish Upon was produced by the Daily Wire.
whichwitch9 on
I don’t want details because now I want to see it….
I like the idea of Buffy using insurance claims to track things, too. She always wanted “normal”.
FriendlytoNature on
Well, I guess we’ll never know now.
Bit I just don‘t get why you wouldn’t get more of the OG BTVS writers on board mixed with a few new writers and get a director who makes sense for this format. It just all seemed like a mess.
psychedelic_tech on
The more I read about it the more I’m glad it’s not happening. The premise also sounds dumb.
Are you really going to have a show called Buffy the Vampire Slayer: New Sunnydale and not have Buffy in it??
> And all the vampires that Buffy buried in the show’s 2003 series finale, when the Hellmouth collapsed in on itself, taking Sunnydale down with it, have been awakened.
I seem to remember all those vamps turned to ash when Spike went Super Saiyan.
I guess maybe some could have just been buried alive ……
DinerEnBlanc on
Who are the sources, the exec who supposedly didn’t like Buffy to begin with? Without context, it just feels like a studio trying to save face.
ienjoymen on
Chloe Zhao doesn’t really seem like the greatest choice for a Buffy reboot…
2 serious Oscar-bait movies and 1 Marvel movie doesn’t seem like it would lead to a great Buffy show.
Charrbard on
So this was another Use the IP / Name to do something mostly unrelated? Meh.
Gimme a Buffy show with Buffy, or give us some 4ks of the originals, or meh.
PumpkinKing86 on
Making Buffy into an insurance sales person is offensive. Why turn her into a villain who is ripping people off?
JamUpGuy1989 on
Zhao is clearly one of the best filmmakers we have today. I don’t get why Hollywood is trying to get her on major IPs. It’s clear that isn’t what she is good at and that’s okay.
MrCanoe on
I am starting to think this is all a play to shop it around. I haven’t seen this much coverage for a show that got cancelled before it started.
LuckyandBrownie on
SMG must have it a nerve because the execs are hitting back hard.
When taking sides I going to go with the slayer and not blood sucking execs.
TylerBourbon on
How do you make a Buffy the Vampire show with only giving Buffy a small role? If you’re going the route of having Buffy not even going by her name anymore, then just drop Buffy from the title.
Lakekun on
I think it’s difficult to make a teen show with such an expectation, a reboot like Buffy using an actually teen as main character, people of course wanna see Sarah, and someone who could whitstand her legacy, difficult to see this cause the actress look really young imo.
DaddyO1701 on
Ahhh. I see we have entered the time where we are going to move from feasting on the corpses of 80’s IP’s in favor of ones from the 90’s.
Tumifaigirar on
Oh no, anyway…
Armand9x on
The TikTok dance video Chloe Zhao put on her instagram showing the Cast as being a literal bunch of children said a lot about the direction they wanted the series to go in.
17 Comments
*New details here, including a synopsis of the pilot’s storyline in the article if you’re curious.
>The issues with the pilot seem to be manifold. Two sources told Variety that, despite her love of the original series, Zhao proved to be a mismatch for “Buffy the Vampire Slayer: New Sunnydale.”
>Those sources say that Zhao’s prodigious skills as a director didn’t lend themselves to a television pilot that requires a lot of exposition. It was undershot, and there wasn’t any coverage, one source said, so there would have had to be reshoots on the pilot anyway. The performances from the actors playing the new characters, who need to make a strong impression as they’re introduced, were under-directed, the sources said. That Armstrong, the new Slayer, has a very young appearance — she turned 16 on March 10 — contributed to the whole enterprise playing too young.
>Sources close to the show tell Variety that the pilot ultimately proved to be unsalvageable: The Zuckermans’ recent rewrite — which featured more Buffy, and a note to age the show up more — wasn’t good enough, in Hulu’s estimation, to turn things around. Given the high bar set by fans for such a revered franchise, executives at Hulu felt that it wasn’t worth throwing good money after bad, and pulled the plug.
The new info they have:
>Those sources say that Zhao’s prodigious skills as a director didn’t lend themselves to a television pilot that requires a lot of exposition. It was undershot, and there wasn’t any coverage, one source said, so there would have had to be reshoots on the pilot anyway. The performances from the actors playing the new characters, who need to make a strong impression as they’re introduced, were under-directed, the sources said. That Armstrong, the new Slayer, has a very young appearance — she turned 16 on March 10 — contributed to the whole enterprise playing too young.
The script they’re going off of is an old and publicly available one based on the “Nova” name, but it was truly diabolically bad and unless they rewrote every line I doubt it could be good. It was like if Wish Upon was produced by the Daily Wire.
I don’t want details because now I want to see it….
I like the idea of Buffy using insurance claims to track things, too. She always wanted “normal”.
Well, I guess we’ll never know now.
Bit I just don‘t get why you wouldn’t get more of the OG BTVS writers on board mixed with a few new writers and get a director who makes sense for this format. It just all seemed like a mess.
The more I read about it the more I’m glad it’s not happening. The premise also sounds dumb.
Are you really going to have a show called Buffy the Vampire Slayer: New Sunnydale and not have Buffy in it??
> And all the vampires that Buffy buried in the show’s 2003 series finale, when the Hellmouth collapsed in on itself, taking Sunnydale down with it, have been awakened.
I seem to remember all those vamps turned to ash when Spike went Super Saiyan.
I guess maybe some could have just been buried alive ……
Who are the sources, the exec who supposedly didn’t like Buffy to begin with? Without context, it just feels like a studio trying to save face.
Chloe Zhao doesn’t really seem like the greatest choice for a Buffy reboot…
2 serious Oscar-bait movies and 1 Marvel movie doesn’t seem like it would lead to a great Buffy show.
So this was another Use the IP / Name to do something mostly unrelated? Meh.
Gimme a Buffy show with Buffy, or give us some 4ks of the originals, or meh.
Making Buffy into an insurance sales person is offensive. Why turn her into a villain who is ripping people off?
Zhao is clearly one of the best filmmakers we have today. I don’t get why Hollywood is trying to get her on major IPs. It’s clear that isn’t what she is good at and that’s okay.
I am starting to think this is all a play to shop it around. I haven’t seen this much coverage for a show that got cancelled before it started.
SMG must have it a nerve because the execs are hitting back hard.
When taking sides I going to go with the slayer and not blood sucking execs.
How do you make a Buffy the Vampire show with only giving Buffy a small role? If you’re going the route of having Buffy not even going by her name anymore, then just drop Buffy from the title.
I think it’s difficult to make a teen show with such an expectation, a reboot like Buffy using an actually teen as main character, people of course wanna see Sarah, and someone who could whitstand her legacy, difficult to see this cause the actress look really young imo.
Ahhh. I see we have entered the time where we are going to move from feasting on the corpses of 80’s IP’s in favor of ones from the 90’s.
Oh no, anyway…
The TikTok dance video Chloe Zhao put on her instagram showing the Cast as being a literal bunch of children said a lot about the direction they wanted the series to go in.