It's official, Jennifer Love Hewitt returns for the new 'I Know What You Did Last Summer'

With filming started just a few days ago, the new installment of I Know What You Did Last Summer launched by Sony Pictures in February 2023 announces a long-awaited return.

Jennifer Love Hewitt is officially back reprising her role as Julie James, played by Hewitt in the original 1997 installment and the 1998 sequel.

The news was confirmed by the actress herself with a publication made on Instagram, in which she said:

“It's never too late to come back. Julie James returns. I already know what you will do next summer!”

Hewitt joins the return of the other original star, Freddie Prinze Jr. as Ray, also played in the 1997 and 1998 films.

Hewitt and Prinze Jr. are joined by a new cast made up of Madelyn Cline (Outer Banks), Sarah Pidgeon (The Wilds), Tyriq Withers (Atlanta), Jonah Hauer-King (The Tattooist of Auschwitz), Chase Sui Wonders (Bodies Bodies Bodies), Lola Tung (The Summer I Turned Pretty), Nicholas Alexander Chavez (Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story), Austin Nichols (The Day After Tomorrow), debut actress Gabrielettey Billy Campbell (serie Mr. & Mrs. Smith).

The feature film has been conceived as “a legacy sequel” trilogy style Halloween from Blumhouse, and the relaunch of the franchise Screamand like those mentioned, will bring back the original stars,

The film is directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (Do Revenge, Someone Great)with a new script co-written by Kaytin Robinson and Sam Lansky. Previously there was a draft written by Leah McKendrick.

Neal H. Moritzone of the producers of the original, is back to produce this new installment.

The original film directed by Jim Gillespie, is loosely inspired by the thriller novel of the same name by Lois Duncan. The film written by Kevin Williamson It arrived in theaters shortly after the hit Scream (1996). After the box office success of the latter, Sony's Columbia Pictures bought the rights to the screenplay by Williamson (screenwriter of Scream and its sequels), taking advantage of the huge resurgence of the slasher genre in the mid-90s.

And this time the strategy is repeated, since Robinson and McKendrick are said to have been inspired by the saga's revival Screamwhich released the fifth installment in 2022, was released the following year Scream VIand currently have in development Scream 7.

The plot of IKWYDLS focuses on a group of four friends, Julie (Hewitt), Ray (Prinze Jr.), Barry (Ryan Phillippe) and Helen (Sarah Michelle Gellar), who, on American Independence Day and after celebrating their high school graduation, accidentally run over and kill a man fleeing the crime scene, after throwing the body to a lake. Nothing happens until a year later, when one of the group members, Julie, receives an anonymous message: “I know what they did last summer.” After the mysterious letter, a man dressed as a fisherman, with a dark raincoat and a hook instead of a hand, begins to attack them one by one, threatening to discover their secret. It had a global box office of $125.5 million with a budget of $17 million.

The studio later released the sequels I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998) with the return of Hewitt and Prinze, and I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer (2006), with new cast. More recently, Prime Video made a series based on the original film, which was canceled after one season aired.

Sony Pictures will release the film under traditional theatrical release July 18, 2025.