There’s a new slayer in Sunnydale: ‘Buffy’ reboot announces Ryan Kiera Armstrong in lead role
Ryan Kiera Armstrong
A tearful Ryan Kiera Armstrong let out an emotional “yes” to Sarah Michelle Gellar‘s offer to join the Buffy universe as the newest slayer.
The sweet exchange was shared to Gellar, Armstrong and Hulu’s Instagram accounts Thursday, amid the news Armstrong had been cast in the lead role in the upcoming, untitled Buffy reboot.
“From the moment I saw Ryan’s audition, I knew there was only one girl that I wanted by my side,” Gellar, who played Buffy Summers in the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer, captioned the social post. “To have that kind of emotional intelligence and talent, at such a young age is truly a gift. The bonus is that her smile lights up even the darkest room.”
Project executive producers NoraZuckerman and Lilla Zuckerman added of the star, “We are so overjoyed to have found this generation’s slayer in Ryan Kiera Armstrong, she absolutely blew us away — there is no question in our mind that she is the chosen one.”
Armstrong’s credits include Disney+’s Star Wars: Skeleton Crew and Firestarter, the sci-fi horror film based on Stephen King‘s 1980 novel of the same name. Armstrong can also be seen in Netflix’s Anne with an E and American Horror Story.
While not many other details have been shared about Armstrong’s role in Buffy, she took to social media with a post expressing how she is “beyond thankful,” “excited for this journey” and “in awe” of her co-star Gellar.
“I’m still in so much shock and disbelief,” she wrote.
A spokesperson for Taylor Swift is responding after the pop star was subpoenaed as a witness in Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni‘s legal feud over their alleged conflict on the set of the film It Ends With Us.
The singer was subpoenaed by Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, but a spokesperson for the singer says she was only involved in licensing her song, “My Tears Ricochet,” for the film and was never on set.
According to Deadline, Swift was subpoenaed earlier this week.
A spokesperson for the “Cruel Summer” singer told Good Morning America in a statement on Friday that, “Taylor Swift never set foot on the set of this movie, she was not involved in any casting or creative decisions, she did not score the film, she never saw an edit or made any notes on the film, she did not even see It Ends With Us until weeks after its public release, and was traveling around the globe during 2023 and 2024 headlining the biggest tour in history.”
The spokesperson added, “The connection Taylor had to this film was permitting the use of one song, ‘My Tears Ricochet.'”
“Given that her involvement was licensing a song for the film, which 19 other artists also did, this document subpoena is designed to use Taylor Swift’s name to draw public interest by creating tabloid clickbait instead of focusing on the facts of the case,” the spokesperson added.
Lively and Baldoni have been embroiled in a heated legal feud since December 2024, when Lively first filed a complaint against Baldoni with the California Civil Rights Department, accusing him of sexual harassment on the set of the film, which he also directed.
Baldoni denied the allegations via a statement from Freedman, who called Lively’s actions “shameful” for making “serious and categorically false accusations” against Baldoni. He added that it was “another desperate attempt to ‘fix’ her negative reputation which was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film.”
Lively, represented by attorney Michael Gottlieb, and Baldoni, represented by attorney Bryan Freedman, then launched dueling lawsuits against each other.
In Baldoni’s lawsuit against Lively, it detailed a text message he allegedly received from Lively in which Baldoni claims she referred to Swift and her husband Ryan Reynolds as her “dragons.” According to his complaint, it argues that Lively leveraged her relationship with high profile individuals like Swift and Reynolds to exert her influence over the film.
Reynolds is also being sued by Baldoni. Lively’s lawyers called Baldoni’s lawsuit “another chapter in the abuser playbook” and accused Baldoni of “trying to shift the narrative to Ms. Lively by falsely claiming that she seized creative control and alienated the cast from Mr. Baldoni.”
The actors are due to appear in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on March 9, 2026, with Judge Lewis Liman overseeing the case.
Ahead of their court date, Lively filed an amended version of her lawsuit against Baldoni in February.
In March, Reynolds filed a motion to dismiss Baldoni’s complaint against him. Lively followed and filed a motion to dismiss Baldoni’s countersuit against her.
GMA has reached out to attorneys and representatives for Baldoni and Lively in response to Swift’s subpoena.
Barry Keoghan is set to play Ringo Starr in Sam Mendes’ four films about The Beatles and the actor revealed on Jimmy Kimmel Live! that he’s met the legendary rock drummer, sharing that he was “absolutely lovely.”
“I met Ringo the other day. I met him at his house, and he played the drums for me,” the Saltburn star said. “He asked me to play, but I wasn’t playing the drums for Ringo.”
Keoghan, who said he’s been learning the drums for the role, opened up about the nerves he experienced during the visit.
“You know just one of those moments where you’re just in awe and you just froze,” he said. “And when I was talking to him, I couldn’t look at him. I was nervous, like right now. But he’s like, ‘You can look at me.'”
As for how he’s approaching the role, Keoghan shared, “My job is to observe and take in kinda mannerisms and study him,” noting, “I want to humanize him and bring feelings to it and not just sort of imitate.”
Mendes’ Beatles films, titled The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event, will be released in April 2028. In addition to Keoghan they’ll star Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, and Joseph Quinn as George Harrison.
John Lithgow is surprised by the backlash from critics of J.K. Rowling over his casting in the upcoming Harry Potter HBO series.
While Lithgow said he thought hard about whether or not he would take on the role as Albus Dumbledore in the show, he told U.K.’s Sunday Times it was due to the time commitment of it and not whether or not he wanted to be associated with Rowling.
Rowling has long been criticized by LGBTQIA+ organizations and members for her repeated rhetoric that is tied to the TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminists) movement, who are a group of people that believe transgender women are not women.
“It was a big decision because it’s probably the last major role I’ll play,” Lithgow said. “It’s an eight-year commitment, so I was just thinking about mortality and that this is a very good winding-down role.”
“That was the canary in the coal mine,” Lithgow said, before explaining he has been surprised by the rage Rowling’s name and involvement in the project evokes.
“I thought, ‘Why is this a factor at all?’ I wonder how J.K. Rowling has absorbed it. I suppose at a certain point I’ll meet her, and I’m curious to talk to her,” Lithgow said.
When asked if the criticism from critics of Rowling has soured his part in the show, Lithgow said, “Oh, heavens no.”
