The more that comes out about Disney Hulu’s canceled Buffy reboot, the more it looks like the project got axed because it was likely too woke.
The reason is right there in the reported pilot script.
A page from Buffy: New Sunnydale shared by Robert Meyer Burnett on X is making the rounds online, and one line in particular stands out: “trying to weaponize my feminism against me.”
The script points to the problem
The reported exchange reads:
STACY
You could’ve at least defended me —
CHRIS
I didn’t want to take away your
agency, babe. You hate it when I
dim your light.
STACY
That is so you, trying to weaponize
my feminism against me. I’m going
home.
If that page is indeed representative of the pilot, then it is not hard to see why Disney and Hulu may have decided this was not the right direction for Buffy (it also didn’t work out for The Bride!).
Hulu passed on the pilot
Reports say Hulu chose not to move forward with the pilot, which had been described as “the next chapter in the Buffyverse.”
Sarah Michelle Gellar was set to recur. Ryan Kiera Armstrong was supposed to play the new Slayer. Eternals director Chloé Zhao was attached to direct. Joss Whedon was not involved.
That is a pretty high-profile package, so for Hulu to walk away anyway suggests there was a bigger issue with the creatives behind the series.
Disney’s changing climate adds to it
The timing also matters.
The Buffy reboot news comes as Disney has been backing away from some of its DEI practices, which Trump just highlighted in a post on Truth Social (see below).
“Disney Ends Key DEI Practices” is listed as one of Trump’s “Reforms.”
The shift has no doubt changed the wider conversation around which projects are getting supported and which are no longer seen as worth the trouble.
So when a Buffy pilot surfaces with woke feminist buzzword dialogue and then gets canceled, it is easy to connect the dots.
It probably was not a coincidence
Deadline reported the project was “not perfect” and that there had even been talk of reworking the pilot. That alone says Hulu saw problems.
The leaked script gives a strong clue about what at least some of those problems may have been.
If this reboot was supposed to launch a new Slayer era, and that is the kind of dialogue it was bringing to the table, then yes, it looks very likely Hulu canceled it because it was woke.
