There’s only one icon who could get Sarah Michelle Gellar to consider a possible Buffy the Vampire Slayer revival: Dolly Parton.
“I mean, like, if Dolly Parton is going to call me I’m always available to take a phone call from the queen,” Gellar, 47, exclusively told Us Weekly while attending the Front Row Fashion Awards at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles on Friday, April 26.
Based on the 1992 film of the same name, Buffy premiered as a midseason replacement TV show on The WB in 1997 before swapping over to the UPN for its last two seasons. The show followed Buffy Summer (Gellar) as she fulfilled her destiny to destroy vampires, demons and other forces of darkness. Alyson Hannigan, Anthony Head, Nicholas Brendon and David Boreanez also starred.
Parton, for her part, served as an uncredited producer on the show through her company, Sandollar Productions. Earlier this year, Parton, 78, teased that the supernatural series— which remains a cult classic among fans today — could be making a comeback in the future.
“They’re thinking about bringing it back and revamping it,” Parton told Business Insider in January. “They’re still working on that.”
While the “Jolene” singer could seemingly change her mind, Gellar has previously been outspoken against returning to the role of Buffy. Last year, the actress told Variety that while she is “very proud” of the show, a revival “doesn’t need to be done.” She is, however, “all for” the Buffy story to continue without her.
Dolly Parton Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
“Because there’s the story of female empowerment,” she continued. “I love the way the show was left: ‘Every girl who has the power can have the power.’ It’s set up perfectly for someone else to have the power. But like I said, the metaphors of Buffy were the horrors of adolescence. I think I look young, but I am not an adolescent.”
Despite not wanting to jump back into Buffy’s high heels, Gellar still holds the memories of her time on BTVS near and dear to her heart, and has even begun watching the supernatural drama with her children: daughter Charlotte, 14, and son Rocky, 11, whom she shares with husband Freddie Prinze Jr.
In 2021, Gellar told Us that the family has watched up to season 5 before pressing pause, as she’s had to “sort of cherry-pick” around the darker episodes that may not be appropriate for younger kids. (Buffy dies at the end of season 5, while season 6 features “Seeing Red,” the episode where James Marsters’ character, Spike, attempts to rape Buffy in her bathroom.)
“We’re working our way slowly through it,” she said. “And then they’ve gotten distracted by other shows.”
Charlotte and Rocky are, however, way more interested in Buffy than any of Gellar’s other work. “They never want to watch anything that I do,” she said. “They’re never interested. I got the first five episodes and I had to watch it because we were doing a panel the next day. I hadn’t seen it, so we all sat down to watch the first episode. And then I said, ‘OK guys, time to shower,’ and they all came back down [to watch the rest].”
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Gellar added that the duo even got up early the next morning to get ready for school to finish the show. “They were, like, adamant that they wanted to see the rest,” she said. “That never happens.”
