Posted in: Hulu, TV | Tagged: btvs, buffy, buffy the vampire slayer

Buffy: 3 More Join Pilot Cast; Wonders Talks Casting, SMG Responds

Merrin Dungey, Audrey Hsieh, and Audrey Grace Marshall join Buffy the Vampire Slayer pilot; Chase Sui Wonders and Sarah Michelle Gellar on Wonders' casting.

Earlier today, we got word that Chase Sui Wonders (The Studio) had joined the cast of EP Sarah Michelle Gellar, Showrunners Nora Zuckerman and Lila Zuckerman, director Chloé Zhao, and EP Gail Berman's Gellar and Ryan K. Armstrong-starring Buffy the Vampire Slayer sequel series pilot for Hulu as a guest star. Since that time, we've had a number of updates, including additional casting news, some thoughts from Wonders on joining the projects, and Gellar reacting to Wonders joining the pilot.

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" Casting News: Merrin Dungey (The Lincoln Lawyer), Audrey Hsieh (Found), and Audrey Grace Marshall (The Flight Attendant) have also joined the pilot in guest-starring roles that could become recurring roles if the pilot gets a series order. Dungey's Ms. LaDuca is the college counselor at New Sunnydale Academy. Hsieh and Marshall play Keiko and Jessica, respectively, high school students and members of the academy's Evangelical Christian group. Along with Gellar and Armstrong, the trio joined a cast that also includes Faly Rakotohavana (Unprisoned) as Hugo, Ava Jean (Law & Order: SVU) as Larkin, Sarah Bock (Severance) as Gracie, Daniel di Tomasso (Witches of East End) as Abe, Jack Cutmore-Scott (Frasier) as Mr. Burke, Kingston Vernes (The Survivor) as Carson, and Chase Sui Wonders (The Studio) reportedly as Shirley.

Chase Sui Wonders on Joining "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" Pilot: "What I can say is that it's a very fun way to enter this series, and [Gellar] is on set every day, from as soon as we start to when we wrap. She's very hands on," Wonders shared about working with Gellar. "I've watched the entirety of the [original] series, so I'm really living inside Sunnydale at the moment. It's very cool and surreal to see young Sarah Michelle just be a total badass, which I knew, but it's cool to see that she's been a badass for a long time," she added. "It's the dream to bring back a show like this, to have someone who was there day in and day out and through the origin of the series, be the consultant. She's the on-set consultant for all kinds of things, of like, how do you react to these types of vampires, or how does someone react to a bite, and all the lore she's got stored in her brain. So, it's very helpful."

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Sarah Michelle Gellar's "Dream"? Bring Back Everyone Who Died

Speaking with Vanity Fair Italia during the 18th edition of the Filming Italy Sardegna Festival, Gellar shared that she considered herself lucky to not have social media around during her run on "Buffy," adding how young actors today are put into positions of having to be social media personalities, too ("…asked to constantly post content and do silly dances on TikTok"). As for why she finally made the decision to return to the "Buffyverse" after all of these years, Gellar credits one person in particular for helping her make the move.

"For so many years, I said no to a possible return of the series. I didn't want to reintroduce something we had already seen. I waited for the right time to come. Then Chloé [Zhao], a big "Buffy" fan, proposed the project to me, and I accepted. The gestation was long. It's been three years, and we're still working on it," Gellar shared, though based on a recent Instagram post, filming on the pilot might just be in sight. As for what fans can expect from the revival, Gellar shared that, "It will be lighter than the last few seasons of the original. We will try to find a balance between new and old characters." Apparently, that includes characters who've passed on, if there's space and a reason. "My dream is to bring back everyone who has died, but space will have to be made for new stories as well," Gellar added.

Finding that right balance is key, a point that Gellar has been emphasizing since the news of the revival series pilot first hit. But as the show's continued success over the years has shown, "Buffy" has very diverse multi-generational fanbase. "One of the surprising aspects of Buffy is that it's always been a crossover series," Gellar explained. "We're trying to figure out how to modernize the themes of the series, especially what it means to feel like an outsider in a world dominated by social media. What we want to explore are the space-time boundaries that affect society today."

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