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Sarah Michelle Gellar won’t return to I Know What You Did Last Summer

I Know What You Did Last Summer is coming back, with Freddie Prinze Jr reportedly set to return, but his better half - Sarah Michelle Gellar - won't be back.

I Know What You Did Last Summer

The success of the Scream franchise legacy sequel, or reboot, or whatever you want to call it, has led to other 90s teen horror movies being placed under the microscope. A new version of I Know What You Did Last Summer is in development, from director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson. Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr are reportedly in talks to return to their roles.

Another star of the original I Know What You Did Last Summer movie was Buffy herself – Sarah Michelle Gellar. She’s connected to the new one in two important ways – Freddie Prinze Jr is her husband, and Robinson is one of her best friends. Gellar recently appeared in Robinson’s teen thriller Netflix movie Do Revenge, which was like a modern version of Heathers or Cruel Intentions (which Gellar starred in).

Despite this, Gellar won’t be returning for one important reason. Her character Helen Shivers is very dead. So dead, she doesn’t even have a head – that’s how dead she is. “As I explained to Jennifer, I am dead. I am dead dead. On ice. She’s like, ‘Are you sure you’re dead dead?’ I’m like, ‘It’s soap dish dead. I don’t have a head. You can’t write for someone that doesn’t have a head. I’m dead,'” Gellar told ET.

Gellar continued; “My husband is starting a podcast going over old horror movies and the first one that they’re doing on his podcast is I Know What You Did Last Summer. So he was at the house watching it and I honestly don’t think that I’d seen it since it came out. I was watching that scene when she’s like two seconds away from getting to the party and then they get her.”

Writer Kevin Williamson went on a streak of writing consistently excellent genre teen movies in the mid-late 90s. It all began with Scream, of course, in 1996. He followed this with I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), Scream 2 (1997), and The Faculty (1998). 1998 is also the year that the teen series Dawson’s Creek began, which he also wrote.

While we wait to hear more about the new version of I Know What You Did Last Summer, check out our guide to the best slasher movies.