Casting Buffy The Vampire Slayer If It Was Made In 2026

The '90s teen drama remains such a pop culture staple that a Buffy sequel series was even in development at Hulu. With Oscar-winning director Chloé Zhao helming the pilot and Sarah Michelle Gellar reprising her iconic role as the titular vampire Slayer, fan excitement for the new show was at a fever pitch, making it all the more disappointing when Hulu pulled the plug on the Buffy reboot in March 2026.

With it being so unlikely that we'll get a new Buffy show — or that the scrapped Hulu pilot will ever see the light of day — this makes fancasting all the more fun. Though nobody could replace Gellar and the original stars, the concept of an all-white cast is incredibly outdated. If Buffy were made today, it should have a cast that better represents Hollywood's diverse talent.

Sadie Sink

Buffy Summers

Buffy carries the weight of the world on her shoulders, and so too would the actress playing her. Buffy Summers is, after all, many things: a tough-as-nails heroine willing to sacrifice her life to save the world, a typical teenager who cares about boys and spending time with friends, and a flawed, vulnerable young woman just trying to figure out how to live in the world.

Sadie Sink embodied many of these qualities in her breakout role as Max Mayfield in Stranger Things. Sink can not only play up the witty charisma Buffy brings to her everyday life, but she also excels at playing characters who put walls up, whether that's as Max or the cynical Ellie in The Whale.

However, it's Sink's ability to tap into dark feelings, such as grief and trauma, that would truly make her the perfect Buffy. Sink bowled audiences over with her haunting performance in Stranger Things season 4's "Dear Billy," proving she has the chops needed for Buffy's heavy scenes, like learning about the prophecy of her death or finding her mother dead in Buffy's best episode, "The Body".

Joseph Chiu

Alexander "Xander" Harris

A 2026 Xander Harris is a difficult character to cast. The new actor will need to possess the lovable everyman charm that the late Nicholas Brendon brought to the role while leaning away from the toxic "nice guy" trope the character was written as in the original '90s series.

Every Year After star Joseph Chiu perfectly fits the bill. In the Prime Video romance series, Chiu steals the show as best friend with a heart of gold, Jordie. Chiu brings the right amount of goofy charm to the role that would serve him well as Buffy's primary comic relief character, but there's a tenderness behind the golden retriever energy that could also elevate Xander's romantic storylines and modernize them for the 21st century.

Maitreyi Ramakrishnan

Willow Rosenberg

The actress playing Willow Rosenberg may have to be the most versatile in the cast, as Buffy's bestie undergoes a huge arc in the show, from timid wallflower to the villainous Dark Willow to a witch goddess who saves the world in Buffy​​​​​​'s ending. The lead actress of Never Have I Ever, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan anchored the Netflix-Mindy Kaling teen dramedy for four seasons, making her a dream Willow.

Having nailed Kaling's fast-talking dialogue style in Never Have I Ever, Ramakrishnan would easily adapt to the "Buffy speak," playing up both Willow's nerdy charm and her neuroses. Dark Willow will be unlike anything Ramakrishnan has ever played before, but she'd expertly portray the complex emotions that led to the Buffy character's descent. Ramakrishnan is the rare performer who both remains in the limelight and helps her scene partners shine, which is perfect given Willow's deep relationships with Buffy, Xander, Tara, and more.

Dev Patel

Rupert Giles

Trying to recreate the late Anthony Head's nuanced performance as Rupert Giles would be a fool's errand, so the actor playing him in 2026 would have to put a fresh, modernized spin on the Watcher/librarian. Enter, Dev Patel. The British actor's lead performance in The Personal History of David Copperfield was a masterclass in bringing contemporary warmth and charm to an adaptation of classic literature, ensuring his Giles would be less stuffy librarian and more modern-day archivist.

Patel would also be adept at showing Giles's protective, emotional side, traits he put on full display in Lion. Though Patel typically plays kind-hearted, peaceful characters, he proved in Monkey Man that he not only can tap into the darkness needed when Giles's Ripper side comes out, but also that he has the action skills required for Buffy's fight scenes.

Jenna Ortega

Cordelia Chase

There is perhaps no TV mean girl more beloved than Cordelia Chase, putting a lot of pressure on the actress who would play her in 2026. They would need to play into her icy bluntness while also capturing the vulnerability and empathy that exist behind the character's meticulously curated Queen C persona.

Strip away the popular cheerleader element of Cordelia, and what's left looks a lot like Jenna Ortega's Wednesday Addams. Ortega would be brilliant at delivering Cordelia's brutal yet hilarious takedowns while ensuring that she remains a three-dimensional character. With Ortega often playing sullen, nonconformist goth girls, it would be an aesthetic delight to see her in Cordelia's stylish and not-at-all affordable boots.

Charles Melton

Angel

Whoever plays Angel, Buffy's first love interest, has to be a leading man for the ages, and fans of Charles Melton have been waiting for the actor to have such an opportunity for years. Melton showed his aptitude for tackling dark, complicated romantic subject matter in May December, and he brought many layers to what could have been a one-note character in Beef season 2, earning him a well-deserved Emmy nomination.

While Melton clearly has the brooding aspect of Angel nailed, his early-career role as Reggie Mantle in Riverdale also shows his ability to play antagonistic characters. This is an absolute necessity come Buffy season 2's heel turn, when Angel loses his soul and becomes Angelus. Melton's past roles also indicate that he has what it takes to carry a series of his own, which would come in handy for a future Angel spinoff.

Zain Iqbal

Daniel "Oz" Osbourne

The right Oz must balance the character's cool, deadpan rocker personality with the warmth and compassion that make him Willow's perfect first love. When it comes to the latter, Zain Iqbal did just that in the cast of Netflix's A Good Girl's Guide to Murder.

In the teen mystery show, Iqbal's Ravi Singh is defined by his unwavering loyalty to his girlfriend, protagonist Pip Fitz-Amobi (Emma Myers). The pair have crackling romantic chemistry, a dynamic that's easy to see Iqbal and Ramakrishnan possess as Oz and Willow. The role of Oz would also provide an opportunity for Iqbal to go a bit darker than his Ravi character, as he embodies Oz's violent werewolf side.

Sammi Hanratty

Anya Jenkins

Anya's unfiltered approach to humanity is mostly played for laughs in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but as an ex-vengeance demon, there's a darkness to the character lying just below the surface. If anyone can capture an awkward outsider with a hair's trigger on unhinged wrath, it's Sammi Hanratty.

In the cast of Yellowjackets, Hanratty plays Misty Quigley, a dorky, bullied teen whose survival skills come in handy when her soccer team's plane crash-lands in the Canadian wilderness — just like how Anya's demon knowledge and connections make her an integral member of the Scooby Gang. As Misty, Hanratty is brilliant at showing her character's villainous side, while taking on the role of Anya would also allow her to further flex her acting muscles when it comes to depicting her character's more heroic side.

Mason Gooding

Spike

If there's one actor in the 2026 Buffy cast who needs to radiate charisma, it's whoever plays Spike. He must expertly couple the bleach-blond vampire's rock-and-roll, bad-boy swagger with Spike's fierce, burn-the-world romantic devotion at the same level that kept James Marsters from being killed off the show and allowed him to turn Spike from a Buffy ​​​​​​villain into a fan-favorite character.

Mason Gooding proved he could perfectly capture that raw, natural, scene-stealing charm right from his film debut in Booksmart, in which he played the covetous, sweetheart jock, Nick. Since that breakout role, Gooding has been playing characters with elements of Spike's personality throughout his entire film career, whether it's courageous brawler Chad Meeks-Martin in the Scream franchise or the sensitive, vulnerable romantic Andrew Spencer in Love, Victor. The ingredients are all there for Gooding to play the perfect Spike.

Hunter Schafer

Tara Maclay

Tara Maclay is a gentle, ethereal welcome contrast to the violent chaos of Sunnydale and its forces of darkness, but the actress who plays the kindhearted witch must have enough screen presence not to be swallowed whole by Buffy's bigger personalities. Hunter Schafer captured this exquisitely as the troubled yet introspective Jules Vaughn in Euphoria.

With Jules and Rue's relationship a major storyline in HBO's controversial teen drama, Schafer not only proved she could hold her own opposite Emmy-winning powerhouse Zendaya, but also that she's the perfect romantic scene partner. This is imperative for the role of Tara, as she and Willow are the most beloved couple in the Buffy fandom.

The only caveat is that a 2026 Buffy the Vampire Slayer must give Tara an ending better than her "bury your gays" demise in the original show — especially because Jules got such a raw deal in the Euphoria series finale, with only one dialogue-free scene. Should Tara be given her much-deserved happily ever after, then Schafer in the role is casting at its absolute finest.