'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' Reboot with Black Lead Put 'On Pause,' EP Says

Fotos International/Courtesy of Getty Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Although the Buffy universe was almost brought back from the dead, it appears to be dust.

A Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot that was put in development in 2018 has since been put "on pause," executive producer Gail Berman told The Hollywood Reporter, according to the outlet's TV Top 5 podcast.

The reboot was announced in July 2018 with Joss Whedon attached as an executive producer, after he wrote the 1992 film and created the beloved WB series of the same name that ran for 7 seasons from 1997 to 2003. A network was not attached at the time.

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Monica Owusu-Breen, who worked with Whedon on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., was set to serve as showrunner and head writer. The series was also set to star a Black actress in the lead role, but Owusu-Breen clarified: "There is only one Buffy."

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"They can't be replaced. Joss Whedon's brilliant and beautiful series can't be replicated. I wouldn't try to," she wrote on Twitter. "But here we are, twenty years later... And the world seems a lot scarier. So maybe, it could be time to meet a new slayer."

Sarah Michelle Gellar, who became famous for playing the titular role in the original series, gave the reboot her seal of approval shortly after, telling PEOPLE: "At the end of the day, it's all about great storytelling. If a story lives on, then I think it should be told in any incarnation it can be told in."

She even nominated an actress to take over the slayer post. "I vote Zendaya," Gellar, 45, said for earlier this year for the book Into Every Generation a Slayer Is Born: How Buffy Stakes Our Hearts.

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Whedon, 58, who was attached at one time to produce, has since faced abuse allegations, which he has largely denied.