When the original I Know What You Did Last Summer was released in 1997, Sarah Michelle Gellar was already starring in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and earning her scream queen status. However, her character, Helen Shivers, didn’t make it out of the first film alive. Later this summer, Gellar’s husband and former co-star, Freddie Prinze Jr., will return to the franchise alongside Jennifer Love Hewitt. Regardless, Gellar was adamant about not coming back, according to director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson.
While speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Robinson revealed that she pitched Gellar some outlandish ideas to secure her a spot in the upcoming legacy sequel that shares the name of the original film. Gellar was unmoved by the pitches for a simple reason: her character was very convincingly dead.
“I tried, okay? I harassed her! But she is dead,” related Robinson. “I tried to pitch some crazy s*** too. I was like, ‘What if it’s like you weren’t dead and you’re actually alive, but in hiding?’ And Sarah’s like, ‘I was on ice. I was the most dead a person could be. You can see my frozen body.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, but what if?’ And she said, ‘I am dead. I am Sarah Dead Gellar.'”
It’s not as if Gellar doesn’t have a lot on her plate already. In this week alone, Gellar signed on to appear in Ready or Not: Here I Come alongside Samara Weaving and Elijah Wood. Gellar is also attached to Hulu’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer revival, which will feature her reprising the title role for the first time in over two decades.
The new I Know What You Did Last Summer features a group of teenagers played by Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Jonah Hauer-King, Tyriq Withers, and Sarah Pidgeon who are haunted by an unseen killer for something they did. When the teens learn that two survivors lived through a similar crisis, they seek out Julie James (Hewitt) and Ray Bronson (Prinze Jr.) for help.
I Know What You Did Last Summer will hit theaters on July 18.
