Sarah Michelle Gellar urges fans to avoid reading the leaked script for the Buffy reboot.

It’s been quite the rollercoaster for fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer this week. On March 14, Sarah Michelle Gellar, the iconic Buffy Summers, took to Instagram to share some heartbreaking news: the anticipated Hulu revival, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: New Sunnydale, has been canceled. In a follow-up interview during her press tour for Read or Not 2: Here I Come, Gellar revealed that the decision came from a Hulu executive who wasn’t a fan of the series.

Buffy enthusiasts who were eager to see the Slayer return were left reeling. Some fans, much to Gellar’s chagrin, have already begun searching for the script of the canceled pilot online. There’s even been a behind-the-scenes feature that references the leaked script.

Gellar spoke with SiriusXM’s Page Six Radio about her hopes that the pilot script never surfaces online.

“I actually hope it doesn’t because then everyone’s going to have an opinion on this and that, and pilots are not finished,” she explained. “It wasn’t done, right? It’s not like we did a season, finished it, and then they shelved it. It’s not like when they made the Batgirl movie and didn’t [release] it. That movie was finished.”

She clarified that what producer-director Chloe Zhao and writers Nora and Lilla Zuckerman created was just a pilot, not a complete season. Reports have surfaced about the pilot’s shortcomings, including a surprising lack of Gellar and a feeling that the reboot was “too young” for its audience.

Gellar reportedly only appears at the end of the pilot, where she is now Anne Summers, sitting in a New York office of a multinational corporation. However, her life was set to take a turn, as the reboot aimed to bring her back to Sunnydale. According to reports, Zuckerman’s rewrites were intended to add more of Buffy to the narrative and mature the tone to appeal to an adult audience. Yet, even those changes weren’t enough to win over Hulu.

While the final pilot hasn’t leaked yet, a draft from 2024 is making the rounds. Gellar emphasized that this circulating script isn’t the final version and urged fans not to read it.

“If you see it leaked, don’t watch it because you’re not getting our vision,” Gellar said.

It’s uncertain if we’ll ever get to see Gellar and Zhao’s true vision for the series. Although a Buffy reboot seems like a no-brainer for any network, reports indicate that Disney, which owns the IP through 20th Century Studios, isn’t looking to shop the show around. There’s a chance it could end up on Disney Plus, and some sources suggest that “the door is open for more Buffy.” However, whether Zhao or Gellar will be involved in any future plans remains to be seen.