Director Chloé Zhao Wrapped the New 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' Pilot

In a new interview with The LA Times, in which she details her reaction to Eternals critical reception and her new film Hamnet, an adaptation of a book by the same name about Shakespeare's marriage, she revealed to writer Josh Rottenberg that her company had worked on the Buffy reboot. "I just wrapped the pilot on the new Buffy the Vampire Slayer series, which is set 25 years later. My company is part of developing it. The fandom is so special to me and I’m excited about how that’s going to go into the world."

She drops the news so casually, I almost had to read it twice.

It seems this tidbit got lost in the initial flurry of press around news of the reboot, but star Sarah Michelle Gellar actually wrote a poignant caption about Zhao back in February. She shared, of the creative partnership: "Three years ago, I got a call from my dear friend and mentor, Gail Berman. She told me that she wanted me to sit down with Chloé Zhao to hear her take on a potential 'Buffy' revival. I was blown away that Chloé even knew who I was, but, as I’ve always done, I told Gail that I just didn’t see a way for the show to exist again." She said that "I eventually agreed to go (mainly just to meet Chloé) and our twenty minute coffee quickly turned into a four hour adventure. We laughed, we cried, but mostly we both talked about how much this show means to us."

Gellar says it took a few conversations to agree to the idea of the reboot at all, and then, after a few years, writers Nora and Lilla Zuckerman were brought on to bring the project to life. "I feel so lucky to be on this journey with these four unbelievably talented women, all of whom love “Buffy” as much as I do," she concluded, with apparent superfan Snooki writing in response: "YAS QUEEN."

Amid the rehashing of the news about Zhao's involvement, an apparent superfan herself, Gellar shared a series of photos from the pilot shoot. Zhao, for her part, can be seen wielding an iconic vampire-slaying stake. Snooki commented, once again, a simple utterance in the comments: "Chills."

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