Dolly Parton shares Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot revelation

Dolly Parton has teased a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot.

The legendary country music singer gave ardent Buffy fans hope that a revival of the series – which made Sarah Michelle Gellar a star – could be on the way in a recent interview, adding producers are considering “revamping” it.

“They’re still working on that,” the 78-year-old “Jolene” singer told Business Insider in an interview on 24 January, “They’re thinking about bringing it back and revamping it.”

Parton was an uncredited producer on the cult classic TV series that ran between 1997 and 2003, with Gellar playing vampire-hunting teen Buffy Summers for all seven seasons of the show.

In addition to the TV show and 1992 movie, her production company, Sandollar Productions, which Parton founded with her ex-manager Sandy Gallin, also co-produced the spinoff show Angel starring David Boreanaz.

Gellar, 43, discussed Parton’s involvement on the show while describing her reaction to finding out “Dolly Parton knows who I am and thinks I’m food”, during an interview last February,

“Yes, little known fact, the legend Dolly Parton was a producer,” Gellar told Jimmy Fallon on an episode of his eponymous talk show. “We never saw her [but] we’d get Christmas gifts in the beginning that would have our name, and I would think, ‘She doesn’t even know who I am.’

“And then one day, someone asked her about it, and she complimented the show and my performance. I was like, ‘Oh, I can die now. Dolly Parton knows who I am and thinks I’m good.’”

Gellar, who was cast on the show when she was 19, has also previously ruled out taking part in a reboot of the hit Noughties fantasy show, explaining she’s now “way too tired and cranky” to take up the job

“I’m a wee bit, how do they say, long in the tooth for that,” she said, during an appearance on the On with Mario Lopez podcast in 2021.

Gellar added the monsters Buffy faced “were a metaphor for the horrors of adolescence” and that “I don’t think it’s me” anymore.

“I don’t think I should be the one doing it… I’m way too tired and cranky to put in that work again,” she continued.

Despite its widespread popularity, the show’s legacy became somewhat tainted in the aftermath of the controversy surrounding its creator Joss Whedon. Several of Whedon’s collaborators, including Justice League actor Ray Fisher and Buffy star Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia Chase), accused him of “abusive” and “unprofessional” behaviour over the years.

Whedon has denied all claims.

Reflecting on the success of Buffy, Gellar said she will “always be proud” of the series, despite the accusations against Whedon, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in January 2023.

She acknowledged that while it was “absolutely not” an “ideal working situation”, it’s “OK to love Buffy for what we created because I think it’s pretty spectacular”.

Gellar said: “I hope that it gives the success back to the people that put in all of the work,” she continued. “I will always be proud of Buffy. I will always be proud of what my castmates did, what I did.

“I hope the legacy hasn’t changed.”