The Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot pilot is moving ahead at Hulu, with the streamer announcing the show's primary cast in recent days.
Sarah Michelle Gellar is indeed returning to her signature role of Buffy Summers, whom she played over the original show's seven seasons and 144 episodes from 1997 to 2003, as well as making additional appearances in spin-off Angel. Gellar is also an executive producer on the new show. She was resistant to returning to the role for many years, but apparently changed her mind after rewatching the original show with her teenage children. It is unclear if she'll be a series regular, recurring actor or even just a guest star in the pilot alone.
15-year-old Ryan Kiera Armstrong (one of the best performers in Star Wars: Skeleton Crew) has been cast as the series lead. Armstrong, who has also appeared in American Horror Story, IT: Chapter Two and Black Widow, will be playing a new Slayer who is told she has to save the world from the forces of darkness.
In the original Buffy, only one Slayer was "active" at any one time, imbued with super-strength and superior reflexes to take on the vampires. Buffy's brief "death" at the end of Season 1 allowed a second Slayer to become active (first Kendra and then Faith). At the conclusion of Season 7, Buffy was able to change the laws of reality so every single "potential" Slayer could become a full Slayer immediately, forming an entire army to save the world. Whether this change was permanent was unclear (though spin-off comics suggested it was).
The other announced cast members are Faly Rakotohavana as Hugo, Ava Jean as Larkin, Sarah Bock as Gracie, Daniel di Tomasso as Abe and Jack Cutmore-Scott as Mr. Burke.
Nora Zuckerman and Lila Zuckerman are the writers, showrunners and executive producers. Chloé Zhao will direct the pilot and produce. Fran Kuzui and Kaz Kuzui, who produced both the TV series and the original 1992 movie and own the rights, are returning as producers. Dolly Parton and her Sandollar production company will also produce; they worked on the original TV series.
At the moment only Gellar has been confirmed to return from the original cast, though the door is apparently open to many of the others returning if the pilot gets a full season pickup. Sadly, this will not be possible for Michelle Trachtenberg (who played Buffy's younger sister Dawn), who passed away in February.
The pilot is expected to shoot over the next couple of months with Hulu expected to make a decision on a full season order shortly after that.
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