There are a lot of upcoming horror movies on the way, but I’ve been particularly excited to know more about what’s in store for the new I Know What You Did Last Summer movie, especially after finding out Jennifer Love Hewitt’s Julie James is officially returning alongside Freddie Prinze Jr’s Ray Bronson. After recently learning that handling the return of Julie didn’t come without some back and forth from its new writers, my excitement has only been elevated.
On behalf of CinemaBlend, I had the chance to attend the trailer release event for I Know What You Did Last Summer over the weekend at Sony Pictures Studios in L.A. While there, we were among the first to watch the brand new trailer (which you can watch below) along with an insightful conversation with the filmmakers and new cast members.
Jennifer Love Hewitt’s character Julie James, and how they should logistically approach the character nearly 30 years after her last appearance, without originally seeing eye to eye. And hey, they both have a point!
As Robinson shared, she kind of wanted Julie to be a bit unserious and remain the “fun” character that fans fell for to begin with, while her co-writer had other ideas. As Lansky added:
As we got deeper and deeper, I was like, ‘Man, Julie! If this happened to you not once, but twice? And this guy turns out to be the son of the guy from last time, I would just never trust anyone ever again. And, that’s how we should write Julie.’ And ultimately, I think we came to a really healthy compromise in terms of how traumatized and shaped by what happened to her Julie is.
It does have me wondering how the present day Julie James will be like after their “heated argument” on the topic, but nonetheless, I’m excited to see her tackle the character after so long. I get both sides, because I want Julie to match the spirit of the original, but I also think Sam has a really good point, that it would be odd if the movie doesn’t get into how this would affect someone.
While we got a glimpse of her in the first trailer, this new one shows that she’ll be super involved with the whole I Know What You Did Last Summer cast in trying to take down the mysterious fisherman killer on his new reign of terror. I love that the trailer has her saying a callback line from the original, which totally makes me want to rewatch the original, while not giving away a lot of the key plot beats.
This is definitely one of those 2025 movie releases I’m marking my calendar for. It’ll reach theaters on July 18.