In the ‘90s, Scream led to a swath of teen ensemble horror franchises like Final Destination and I Know What You Did Last Summer. It’s now officially back into the game with last year’s hit movie and another film coming soon. So, it is not surprising that the franchise is inspiring others to dust off their dormant universes and return back for more gore. Deadline reports that an I Know What You Did Last Summer sequel will release on July 18, 2025 and, in an Instagram post, Jennifer Love Hewitt confirmed her return as Julie James. The film is currently in production.
More recently, the actress posted a letter with that infamous plain scribble to Instagram. There are a few things to glean from here.
First, it could indicate that Julie James has more of a leading role than we initially thought she would. It is possible for her to be helping the next generation but perhaps she interacts with a younger group of people because she’s a teacher or working with them in some capacity. Second, the envelope has “Julie James” on it, which means that she may not have married Ray Bronson. Of course, not every married woman takes her husband’s last name but it has also been many years since last film. People break up and maybe its another killer with a hook who brings them back together, like Gale and Dewey from Scream.
The final observation is that Julie is living in North Carolina, but not in her small town. While the address is fictional, Raleigh is very much so a real city and the capital of NC that’s centrally located in the state. The first film takes place in Southport, NC, which is a coastal town, and the second film showed in her college in Boston. What made Julie move back to her home state? What’s going on with her family? It is all very interesting.
Freddie Prinze, Jr. is also officially returning for the I Still Know What You Did Last Summer sequel and reprising his role as Ray Bronson. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Brandy basically says “I wanna be down” with the upcoming I Know What You Did Last Summer action. We do love us some Karla Wilson, who survived the events of I Still Know What You Did Last Summer. But, we haven’t heard any word of her being on set and filming as Karla. It has been years since the events of that movie and perhaps Karla did the smart thing and got far, far away from Julie and Ray.
“I need them to give me a call because I survived in that movie!” Brandy affirmed. “I came out in the end, bloodied up, ready to go. I did not die in that film… Jennifer, Freddie, hit me up.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Madelyn Cline, Sarah Pidgeon, Tyriq Withers and Jonah Hauer-King are all in talks to star in the movie. Jennifer Kaytin Robinson is set to direct this sequel.
The I Know What You Did Last Summer sequel could follow a format similar to what we saw in Scream (2022). Legacy characters like Julie James and Ray Bronson will return to help newer people get through a horrific antagonist is a win for longtime fans and new ones, too. It would be interesting, though, considering that the last time we saw these I Know What You Did Last Summer characters, it seemed that the hooked killer was about to murder them. Of course, this could have simply been Julie’s bad dream.
Thankfully, a canceled fourth film with their confirmed deaths didn’t take place. We will see how it all goes down this summer when the film hits theaters.
Originally published on February 7, 2023.