Many people were affected by the death of Robin Williams in 2014, from fans to colleagues and friends. While the hidden inner trauma of the actor became apparent after this untimely passing, the revelations about his mental suffering forced a number of those who knew him to contemplate their own work/life balance. One such person was Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Sarah Michelle Gellar, who took a step away from her career following the death of Williams, and she recently reflected on the reasons for her break while speaking to People Magazine.
Gellar is known to a whole generation as Buffy Summers in the hit series Buffy The Vampire Slayer, but between 2013 and 2014 the actress starred alongside Williams in the CBS sitcom The Crazy Ones, the show that would provide Williams with his final TV role. Talking about her feelings at the time of William’s passing, Gellar explained:
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Unlike many stars, who step back from the limelight for a very short time, Gellar mostly stayed away from acting for over six years. During that time, her children, Charlotte Grace and Rocky James, have now grown to an age when Geller feels she can happily return to a more active role in Hollywood. She provided the voice of Teela in Kevin Smith’s Masters of the Universe: Revelation, has a role in Smith’s Clerks III and was recently announced to have a main role Teen Wolf spin-off Wolf Pack.
“I’ve been working my entire life. When I had kids — and it was right after Robin passed away — there was just so much going on in my life and I just said, ‘I need to take a break.’ I need to be here for these early formative years of my kids’ life. I needed that break to be the parent that I wanted to be.”
Sarah Michelle Gellar Won’t Return to Her Most Iconic Role
For several years, there has been speculation about a Buffy the Vampire Slayer revival as recently as 2020, but if a new iteration of Buffy does happen – as it inevitably will at some point – Sarah Michelle Gellar won’t be part of it. However, the actress did recently reveal who she would like to see take on the mantle of the slayer in a reboot, and that would be Euphoria and Spider-Man star Zendaya.
With Hollywood’s love of reviving 25-year-plus franchises, it seems that now would be roughly the time that someone will be pushing for a new Buffy to emerge. Of all the franchises that have been rebooted, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is probably the one that actually sets itself up for a reboot rather than a legacy follow-up. The line of the show is that in every generation, a slayer is born, meaning that a new slayer on the block would just be following the show’s own logic and rules. However, there have been multiple attempts to revive the franchise with little success; although now the franchise has landed in Disney’s lap thanks to the merger with Fox, it is surely only a matter of time before a new slayer rises again.
In the meantime, Sarah Michelle Gellar will be seen playing a pivotal role in Wolf Pack on Paramount+ in the next year or so and is expected to reprise her role as Teela in Kevin Smith’s next Masters of the Universe project for Netflix.
