After the cancellation of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot, Sarah Michelle Gellar is returning to the supernatural genre.
The scream queen will forever be linked to Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003), in which she played the lead role of Buffy Summers. In February 2025, she was set to pick up the stake again for a Hulu sequel series, only for the revival to be canceled by March 2026, leaving the Slayer stuck, once more, without a next chapter.
Now, according to Deadline, Sarah Michelle Gellar has officially signed on to star in Thud, a supernatural romance from director Mali Elfman (Next Exit), in which Gellar will play the role of the Grim Reaper, alongside Rudy Pankow (Outer Banks) as the Devil.
Based on an original screenplay by Noga Pnueli (Meet Cute), Thud follows the Grim Reaper and the Devil’s own meet cute during a three-day destination wedding, only to find themselves falling for each other while separately trying to unleash chaos at the same event.
The film is scheduled to shoot in Los Angeles under the California tax credit program, with production led by producers Derek Bishé and David Grove Churchill Viste. Executive producers include Lindsay Helms and Joel Nevells of Helmstreet Productions, Greg Gilreath and Adam Hendricks of Divide/Conquer, Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin of Radio Silence, along with Dan Lawler and Noga Pnueli.
Sarah Michelle Gellar is re-teaming with Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett of Radio Silence after previously starring in their horror-comedy sequel Ready or Not 2: Here I Come (2026), which the duo directed. Gellar’s recent work also includes Dexter: Original Sin (2024-2025) and a cameo appearance in the 2025 I Know What You Did Last Summer reboot, the franchise she helped define in the original 1997 slasher.
Up next, she’s set to voice a role in the Tubi animated series Breaking Bear. On the other hand, Rudy Pankow is widely recognized for his role in Netflix’s Outer Banks and recently appeared in the Colleen Hoover adaptation Reminders of Him (2026). He has just completed filming the modern Western Cowboy, and is set to appear next in Hulu’s comedy Never Change!
Elfman made her feature directorial debut with the genre-blending film Next Exit (2022) and more recently, she wrote and directed The Scariest Skeleton for the animated horror anthology Dark Corners, collaborating with Stephen King. Noga Pnueli has been featured twice on The Black List for her screenplays Meet Cute (2022) and High Society, the latter of which sold to Peacock for distribution.
With Thud now moving forward, it looks like Gellar’s supernatural chapter isn’t over, it’s just taken a much more hellishly romantic turn.
- Birthdate
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April 14, 1977
- Birthplace
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New York City, New York, United States
- Height
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5 feet 4 inches