Sarah Michelle Gellar speaks out about doomed Cruel Intentions reboot

Sarah Michelle Gellar in Cruel Intentions — (Image credit: Sony)

Sarah Michelle Gellar is glad that NBC's proposed Cruel Intentions TV series never made it past the announcements.

"That was a whole crazy time,” she told The New York Times. “Nothing against NBC, but Cruel Intentions is straight streaming. On the first day, I was like, ‘This isn’t working.’ It’s just not a network show. And if it is a network show, it’s not my Cruel Intentions. So, I was actually grateful.”

The show, based on Roger Kumble's 1999 dark teen drama, was announced in 2015. Kumble was set to return as writer and director, with a script (summarized via Vulture) that followed the life of 16-year-old Bash Casey (Taylor John Smith), the son of Annette Hargrove (Reese Witherspoon) and Sebastian Valmont (Ryan Phillippe). After discovering the truth about his father in a hidden journal, Bash moves from small-town Kansas to San Francisco, where he joins a swanky prep school and has to reckon with his step-aunt Kathryn (Gellar), who is fighting for control of a big corporation.

The following year, Gellar announced that she would return as Kathryn Merteuil, the "Marsha Fucking Brady of the Upper East Side," squashing any and all rumors that the iconic role would be recast. Later that year, NBC announced that it had passed on the project. Another reboot, this time via Amazon Freevee, was announced last year – but we don't know if Gellar will be involved. We do, however, know that she "absolutely" played her role as the headmaster in Netflix's Do Revenge as an older version of Kathryn.

For more, check out our list of the most exciting upcoming movies in 2022 and beyond.

Lauren Milici is a Senior Entertainment Writer for GamesRadar+ based in New York City. She previously reported on breaking news for The Independent's Indy100 and created TV and film listicles for Ranker. Her work has been published in Fandom, Nerdist, Paste Magazine, Vulture, PopSugar, Fangoria, and more.