I Know What You Did Last Summer’s big cameos and twists explained

JOE spoke to the cast and director about the slasher's big surprises. Spoilers ahead, obviously.

The legacy sequel follows a group of five young adult friends from the seaside town of Southport, North Carolina, who were inseparable as teens but have since drifted apart.

Reuniting for the engagement party of two of the five friends, Danica (Madelyn Cline, Outer Banks) and Teddy (Tyriq Withers, Him), the group gets drunk and stoned together. While heading to the town's mountainside to view a fireworks display, they end up causing a car crash that claims the life of a stranger.

Using his rich parents' connections, Teddy covers up the incident for the group, who then go about their lives as normal but struggle with the guilt.

A year later, however, Danica receives a sinister anonymous note which reads: "I know what you did last summer."

The group reunites to get to the bottom of who sent the message, but as they investigate, they start being picked off one by one by a mysterious figure in a raincoat wielding a hook.

Ava (Chase Sui Wonders, The Studio), one of the five friends, realises that similar events occurred in Southport in the '90s and seeks out the two survivors: the now divorced couple Julie James and Ray Bronson (a returning Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr.).

Co-written and directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (Do Revenge), I Know What You Did Last Summer captures all the best elements of the 1997 original (its atmospheric sense of place, its tense and unpredictable set-pieces where the hook-wielding killer stalks its victims).

That said, it also boasts a much better mystery and more complex characters, as well as the added emotional weight that comes from seeing older versions of the beloved characters from the original interacting with the series' new protagonists.

JOE spoke to co-writer and director Robinson, as well as her cast, about the sequel. You can read a spoiler-free version of those conversations right here.

However, Cline, Prinze Jr. and Robinson also broke down the film's big cameo and twist, which we will get into below. Spoilers ahead!

The Twist

As it turns out, Stevie (Sarah Pidgeon) - one of the five main friends - is the killer. It is revealed that her lover was the man who died in the car crash, something she only realised in the aftermath of the cover-up.

Fueled by anger and resentment that her wealthier friends were able to move on with their lives, she donned the raincoat and hook and began targeting them.

However, she was helped in her quest by her boss at the local bar and friend... Ray (Freddie Prinze Jr.)

It turns out Ray, the hero of the first two movies in the slasher series, grew embittered in the decades since I Still Know What You Did Last Summer. This was a result of the disillusionment of his marriage to Julie, and because he felt like the town of Southport had whitewashed what happened to him and his friends to make the area into more of a tourist spot.

It was this and his desire to protect Stevie that turned him into everything he once despised.

It's worth noting that Prinze Jr. is amazing as his older, haunted version of Ray.

When asked if it was fun to play against type, the actor told JOE:

"Yeah, since I was a little boy I always wanted to be the man in the mask. While I didn't get to be a monster in this, certainly what he's going through turns him into one. I just didn't get to wear the mask. So, it was a childhood dream come true to get a chance to go there.

"[Director Jennifer] and I had to come up with a reason why. It had to be something that I could wrap my head around and apply life experience to as much as you can with something like this and make it as as honest and as vulnerable as possible.

"I really wanted to try to do something different with this guy and almost have people's hearts break when they find out what he's done and what he was capable of and how broken of a man he is.

"It's not fun to play a broken man. It's hard you take that crap home with you at the end of the day.

"So, it was a really wonderful experience and I was old enough and had enough life experience I think to really give everything into it."

Cameos

There are also two major cameos. I Still Know What You Did Last Summer's Karla Wilson (Brandy) appears in a mid-credit scene that teases a sequel.

But the bigger one is Sarah Michelle Gellar reprising her role of Helen Shivers from the original, something that is particularly unexpected given her iconic death in the 1997 flick.

Her cameo does not cancel this out, however, as she appears via a dream sequence.

Newcomer to the franchise, Danica, is very similar in temperament to Helen, and at one stage, she notes how she and the deceased were both beauty pageant queens.

Danica then later has a nightmare - probably as a result of severe stress - in which she has a vision of and communicates with Helen.

Prinze Jr. is married to Gellar in real life. We had wondered if Gellar had asked to be a part of the sequel, after seeing her husband reprising his role.

However, Prinze Jr. said this was not the case, with her cameo always having been part of director Robinson's plan.

He told us:

"[Director] Jen knew what she wanted to do long before. There was no jealousy of Sarah. It was a big part of the plan that Jen had... just to give fans something that they want.

"We know how much people wished Helen Shivers lived in the first movie. Her death, I think, is one of the finest deaths in the history of horror films because it gives you hope, that shot of the fireworks. She's a coward as a character and the first time she chooses to be brave and fight back, her reward is death! And that sucks for the audience!

"Like, it's perfect and great and they did a great job but it makes you wish: 'No, that's my final girl. She finally fought. She wasn't ruled by cowardice. She made the right decision and now she's gone.'

"So, I thought [the cameo] was a wonderful idea. It was all Jen and Sarah. I had nothing to do with it. But I just thought it was a wonderful way to give the audience something that they wanted for so long."

Robinson notes, however, there was one particular condition she and Gellar had for the cameo, explaining: "It was very important for Sarah and I not to undo anything that happened in that first movie and be like: 'Oh, she's alive or she's this or she's that.'

"We wanted to make sure Helen Shivers remains dead. She's also just in this movie."

Cline also spoke to JOE about getting to act opposite Gellar for the dream scene.

She said:

"It was incredible, iconic, unforgettable. When Jen told me that we were going to be doing that, I nearly shit my pants.

"Like I can't imagine a more iconic thing for Danica and also for me, just personally. It only felt right for our two Croaker queens to meet."

Unlike Helen, Danica gets to fight another day at the end of the 2025 version of I Know What You Did Last Summer.

As for whether this was a result of the reaction to Helen's death in the original, she told JOE: "Maybe. It could be. This is a horror movie. It's slashy, stabby. But it's also a movie about friendship.

"I think we succeeded in that the friendship is so strong with these characters that that could also have something to do with it."

I Know What You Did Last Summer is in cinemas now.