Everything We Know About the new I Know What You Did Last Summer sequel

We have put together a list of Everything We Know About the new I Know What You Did Last Summer sequel, directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson The post Everything We Know About the new I Know What You Did Last Summer sequel appeared first on JoBlo.

May 26, 2025 - 21:45

There’s a new sequel to the 1997 slasher I Know What You Did Last Summer and its 1998 follow-up I Still Know What You Did Last Summer coming our way, aiming for a July 18 theatrical release – and with that date right around the corner, we figured this was the right time to put together a list of Everything We Know About the new I Know What You Did Last Summer sequel. Here we go:

CREATIVE TEAM

The announcement that I Know What You Did Last Summer was getting a new sequel came out of nowhere in February 2023, when Deadline revealed that, following years of talk about a reboot and then a short-lived TV series being released through the Prime Video streaming service, director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (Do Revenge) and screenwriter Leah McKendrick (M.F.A.) were teaming up for a film that would bring Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. back as the characters they played in the ’97 and ’98 films.

Deadline explained that the idea for the new film came from Robinson and McKendrick, who blew studio execs away when they pitched this idea for a sequel last fall especially given the recent success of the Scream franchise. That film was recently relaunched with original cast members returning and the idea of bringing back original cast members to draw in old school fans of the franchise while also adding fresh faces to relaunch the series was too good for the studio to pass up on. Another big factor was the recent success of Robinson’s Netflix pic Do Revenge, which was lauded for its throwbacks to late 90 pics like Cruel Intentions and was something execs knew Robinson could tap in to when developing the story. The studio also saw it important to not reboot the franchise but do a sort of “passing of the torch” type of sequel where original cast members are brought back while a new generation cast members are added to the ensemble, similar to films like Creed or another 90s horror classic Scream.

McKendrick had been working on a Grease prequel called Summer Lovin’ at Paramount that was cancelled, and after that experience she thought she was done working on properties she didn’t own. Then the opportunity to pitch for a new I Know What You Did Last Summer sequel came up. She told Collider, “The reason I was able to go in is because it was a Sony film, I have a relationship with Sony, and the producers I also had a relationship with. And I found out it was (Robinson) that was gonna be directing it. And more than anything I thought, ‘Because my love is so deep for I Know What You Did Last Summer, I have to protect it. I must protect it. I can’t let this be, like, cheesy and a cash grab.’ … When it’s like they’re rebooting something that you love so deeply from your childhood, you’re like, ‘I know how we can do this and not make it cheesy, and it can stay true to the mythology, and we can bring back the OGs, and it can be a culmination.’ You have all these ideas. So I met with (Robinson). She is so cool, she is so smart. She is just, like, down to try some edgy, cool-ass shit. And I was like, ‘I’m gonna give this my best shot,’ and I pitched. All they told me was they were like, ‘We need to know the accident, the event that kicks it off, and know who the killer is.’ Because they knew that if I had to do a whole fleshed out process of pitching, I was probably just not gonna do it because my heart had been so broken by the reboot game. But when they told me that, I was like, ‘I know what I’m gonna do.’ And no spoilers, but I will say that I think if you’re an OG fan, I think you’re gonna be happy. I think you’re gonna get it.“ She went on to say that Robinson is “thinking spectacle” for this sequel is ready to “knock out some really complicated ideas” while ensuring the film is a wild, fun ride. She said the story deals with “beautiful people behaving badly,” just like the original film, and “it really reckons with some big ideas about hero and villain, right and wrong, how your skeletons come back to haunt you. And in the age of the internet and the age where fame is such a revered concept, the creation of TikTok and social media, who is Julie James in a world where there are no secrets anymore?“

McKendrick’s script received some rewrites from Robinson and journalist Sam Lansky.

CAST

Although Sony went ahead and said that Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. were involved with the project in the announcement, that wasn’t actually the case. Hewitt and Prinze hadn’t even been contacted yet at the time! And it took quite a while for them to close their deals – Prinze didn’t officially sign on to reprise the role of Ray Bronson until September of 2024, and Hewitt’s deal to play heroine Julie James again wasn’t signed until December of 2024, the same month filming began.