Sarah Michelle Gellar says she would replace late friend Shannen Doherty in new film

‘Mallrats’ director Kevin Smith had said ‘Buffy’ star would bring Doherty’s ‘warmth’ to the role

Buffy star Sarah Michelle Gellar, who was friends with the late Shannen Doherty for 30 years, has said she would be up for stepping in for the late star in a new sequel to Mallrats.

Doherty, also famous for her roles in Charmed and Beverly Hills 90210, died of breast cancer in July after being diagnosed with the disease in 2015.

The original 1995 buddy comedy Mallrats followed two friends, played by Jeremy London and Jason Lee, as they have a chaotic day out at the mall after both of their girlfriends leave them on the same day.

Doherty starred as the girlfriend of Lee’s character, and the movie also featured Claire Forlani, Ben Affleck and Joey Lauren Adams.

This week, director Kevin Smith said he wants to move forward with the sequel project, which had been in development since 2020, as a tribute to Doherty, who had been set to reprise her role.

He said: “I would ask Sarah to step in for Shannen if there’s a possibility that we get to make Twilight of the Mallrats," Smith told The Hollywood Reporter. “I think that’d be personally meaningful for her on some level because of her relationship with Shannen... She’d bring Shannen’s warmth with her, and it’s maybe the next best thing to having Shannen there.”

Gellar, 47, commented on a post of the story quickly, writing: “Here for this idea!!”

Paying tribute to Doherty after she died, The Independent’s Adam White wrote: “I adored watching her on screen, the sense that she was always just on the cusp of slapping someone – as part of a clique of cruel teens in the Winona Ryder classic Heathers, say, or as the pissed-off girlfriend in Kevin Smith’s Mallrats.

“She was brilliant in Charmed, as the eldest of a trio of sister witches, who understood the weight of her duty to protect the innocent. Prue Halliwell was cool, responsible, complex and always inappropriately dressed for battle, but pfft – who says you can’t kill a demon in a belly shirt and a miniskirt?”

Doherty in ‘Mallrats' (Gramercy Pictures)

Doherty and Gellar were friends for three decades, with Gellar supporting Doherty through her illness, and the pair’s families quarantining together during the Covid lockdowns.

After Doherty died, Gellar had written on social media: “How do you possibly find the right words to sum up 30 years of friendship? I keep reminding myself it only hurts this much because, there was so much love.”