Sarah Michelle Gellar will return as Buffy Summers in a sequel series to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and there’s another iconic character that she needs to bring back, too. Although the film industry has benefited a lot from the ongoing trend of reboots and legacy sequels, television has also seized these to different levels of success. The latest to join these trends is Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which, after years of rumors of a reboot, is officially returning with a sequel series with Gellar back as the тιтle character.
In February 2025, it was reported that a Buffy the Vampire Slayer sequel series is nearing a pilot order at Hulu, without the involvement of series creator Joss Whedon. Gellar is set to reprise her role as Buffy and is serving as an executive producer, too, and it’s said to focus on a new slayer, with Buffy having a mentor role. Gellar’s return as Buffy is exciting, but it’s also a reminder of another popular character in Gellar’s career that also deserves a second chance: none other than Scooby-Doo’s Daphne.
Sarah Michelle Gellar Was Too Good As Daphne Not To Ever Play Her Again
Sarah Michelle Gellar’s Daphne Debuted In 2002
Sarah Michelle Gellar rose to fame when she joined Buffy the Vampire Slayer in 1997 and starred that same year in the slasher movie I Know What You Did Last Summer. Thanks to these, Gellar became a big star in the 1990s and 2000s, during which she also starred in the teen drama Cruel Intentions and had a minor role in Scream 2 as Cici Cooper. In 2002, Gellar was cast as Daphne Blake in Raja Gosnell’s live-action adaptation of Scooby-Doo, starring alongside Freddie Prinze Jr. as Fred Jones, Matthew Lillard as Shaggy, and Linda Cardellini as Velma Dinkley.
Scooby-Doo sees the Mystery Inc. gang parting ways after many disagreements between them. Two years later, they are reunited by Emile Mondavarious (Rowan Atkinson), the owner of the horror-themed resort Spooky Island. Mondavarious has noticed that the guests, who are all teenagers and young adults, have been acting strangely and appear to be under a demonic curse – and his only hope is the Mystery Inc. gang. Although reluctant to work together again at first, the gang teams up to uncover the mystery of Spooky Island, with a plot twist included.
Despite getting negative reviews and a 32% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, Scooby-Doo performed well at the box office. Although most praise went towards Lillard’s perfect portrayal of Shaggy, Gellar’s Daphne was also one of the strengths of Scooby-Doo. Instead of being a carbon copy of the character in the animated TV shows, Gellar’s Daphne had some well-deserved updates while keeping the character’s essence. Gellar’s Daphne grows tired of being the “bait”/damsel in distress in the gang’s plans and becomes a lot more independent during the team’s hiatus.
Gellar’s Daphne shared some key traits with Buffy, with both being strong (in all ways), trained in combat, and not scared to defend themselves, while also being soft-hearted, kind, and feminine. Gellar reprised her role as Daphne in Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, and though the movie ended up becoming forgettable, the cast’s performances continued to be a strength amid the mess – unfortunately, that was the last time Gellar played Daphne.
Why Scooby-Doo 3 With The Same Cast Never Happened
Scooby-Doo Could Have Been A Trilogy
The live-action Scooby-Doo movies almost became a trilogy, but the film series had to take a different route. As mentioned above, Scooby-Doo was a critical failure but performed well enough at the box office to grant it a sequel. However, Monsters Unleashed got an even worse reception than the first movie, with a 22% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes. Monsters Unleashed was called silly, messy, uninspired, and only occasionally funny, though the improvement in the special effects and action sequences was noted.
Scooby-Doo 3 was canceled due to the poor box-office performance of the second movie, which Lillard blamed on Warner Bros.
At the box office, Monsters Unleashed didn’t perform well, either, grossing $181.2 million against a budget of $25-80 million. Now, a third Scooby-Doo movie was approved in 2002 and a script was in the works. However, following the release of Monsters Unleashed, Lillard told SciFi Wire (via MovieWeb) that Scooby-Doo 3 was canceled due to the poor box-office performance of the second movie, which he blamed on Warner Bros.
In 2019, during a Q&A on Instagram (via ComicBook), James Gunn (who wrote both Scooby-Doo movies) confirmed that he was set to write and direct Scooby-Doo 3, but the underperformance of the second movie led to it never being made. However, this wasn’t the end for Scooby-Doo in live-action, as it got two live-action TV movies and one live-action direct-to-video movie focused on Daphne and Velma.
What A Scooby-Doo Sequel Would Look Like 21 Years After Monsters Unleashed
Scooby-Doo 3 Would Have To Do Some Things Differently
Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed doesn’t leave loose ends that make a third movie essential, and, instead, it would have simply taken the gang on a new adventure with a new mystery to solve and monsters to confront. In a now-deleted post on Twitter/X in 2020, Gunn shared some details of what the plot of Scooby-Doo 3 could have been. Gunn explained that Scooby-Doo 3 would have taken the Mystery Inc. gang to a town in Scotland that was said to be plagued by monsters.
Scooby-Doo 3 would have been darker and more serious (in some parts, at least) than the previous movies, with at least Shaggy and Scooby going through some necessary changes.
It would have eventually been revealed that the monsters were actually the victims, forcing Scooby and Shaggy to “come to terms with their own prejudices and narrow belief systems.” Scooby-Doo 3 would have been darker and more serious (in some parts, at least) than the previous movies, with at least Shaggy and Scooby going through some necessary changes. However, it’s unknown what Fred, Daphne, and Velma would have been up to, but they might have learned an important lesson of empathy, too.
Sarah Michelle Gellar Should Play Daphne Again (Even If Not In A Live-Action Movie)
There Are Other Ways For Sarah Michelle Gellar’s Daphne To Return
Sarah Michelle Gellar’s return as Buffy might inspire the comeback of other of her most popular characters, and the best thing about Daphne is that it doesn’t have to be a live-action return. Gellar could voice Daphne in one or more Scooby-Doo animated projects, just as Matthew Lillard has been doing with Shaggy since 2010 and most recently in 2023 in the movie Scooby-Doo! and Krypto, Too!. Although Daphne already has some established voice actors, it would be fun to have Gellar back along with Lillard in one or more animated Scooby-Doo movies.
The success of Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s sequel series and Gellar’s performance could not just lead to the revival and return of other popular TV shows from the 1990s/2000s, but also to Gellar reprising other past roles. Scooby-Doo 3 is highly unlikely to happen now, but Sarah Michelle Gellar’s Daphne can still return.
Sources: MovieWeb, ComicBook.
