Sarah Michelle Gellar has returned to movies after a 13-year hiatus, with roles in Do Revenge and Clerks III, both released in the same week. While the Buffy the Vampire Slayer star has continued to regularly appear on TV with lead roles in short-lived series like Ringer and The Crazy Ones, Gellar hasn't appeared in a movie since 2009's Possession. The closest she came was when she reprised her role as Kathryn Merteuil in a TV movie sequel to Cruel Intentions, a character which is said to have inspired her casting in Do Revenge.
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Because of Buffy's iconic status, it's not hard to see why Gellar hasn't done many movies since 2009. Since Buffy ended after season 7 in 2003, Sarah Michelle Gellar's film credits are predominantly horror related. She starred in the US remake of Japanese horror The Grudge and its sequel and played Daphne in the sequel to Scooby-Doo, which was an unsubtle piece of casting given Buffy Summers' group of friends' Scooby Gang nickname in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Her last movie Posession, was beset by distribution problems caused by the 2008 financial crisis, and eventually went straight to DVD. After this inauspicious end to her movie career, Gellar continued to work in TV, making guest appearances in shows like The Big Bang Theory and The Simpsons.
Released on Netflix and in theaters respectively, Do Revenge and Clerks 3 mark low-key return movies for Gellar. Writer and director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson said that Sarah Michelle Gellar's Do Revenge character, the prep school headmaster, was written as an older version of Kathryn. Gellar identified this and signed on for the role, recognizing that Do Revenge reframes the 90s teen movie for a modern audience. Her role in Kevin Smith's Clerks 3 as one of the auditionees for Randall's movie is a nod to having previously worked with the writer-director as Teela in Masters of the Universe: Revelation.
Sarah Michelle Gellar's Upcoming Movies & TV Shows
Last year, it was announced that Sarah Michelle Gellar would be starring alongside her Scream 2 co-star David Arquette in Hot Pink. Adapted from the young adult novel What Girls Are Made Of by Elana K. Arnold, a pilot was produced by Annapurna Pictures for Amazon. The pilot was executive produced by The Miseducation of Cameron Post's Desiree Akhavan and also starred The Resort's Nina Bloomgarden. Despite the substantial talent involved with Hot Pink, Amazon passed on the pilot, and Annapurna Pictures are believed to be currently screening the pilot to other networks and streamers.
In the meantime, Sarah Michelle Gellar's next big project is in another supernatural adjacent show, Wolf Pack for Paramount+. She'll play arson expert Kristin Ramsay, who investigates the wildfire that kick-starts the show's supernatural events. Sarah Michelle Gellar's role in Teen Wolf's spinoff is as both star and executive producer. Gellar is obviously perfect casting, something highlighted by the show's creator Jeff Davis, who spoke of the influence of Buffy on Wolf Pack's parent show, Teen Wolf. While this may speak to Gellar's typecasting into supernatural investigator roles, the Wolf Pack show, combined with recent roles in Do Revenge and Clerks 3 shows that the actor's career is still in good health.