‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ Is the Next Horror Film to Receive a Reboot

The film industry is giving everything a reboot and the next film franchise to receive the reboot treatment is I Know What You Did Last Summer. As reported by Deadline, the film is in early development with the film franchise’s stars Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. set to return. 

The famed ‘90s slasher flick focused on a group of North Carolina teens who ran over a pedestrian one summer night, covered up the details of the incident, and were then attacked a year later by a mystery assailant who knows what they did last summer. The original film starred ‘90s teen heartthrobs Hewitt, Prinze Jr., Ryan Phillippe, and Sarah Michelle Gellar. Penned by queer horror screenwriter Kevin Williamson (and screenwriter of fellow slasher film Scream) and directed by Wes Craven, the film was a commercial success and consequently launched the careers of the movie’s stars. 

Whereas Scream became a self-aware, meta horror film, I Know What You Did Last Summer, based on the 1973 novel of the same name, focused on ‘80s slasher films. I Know What You Did Last Summer produced the sequel I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, although Williamson and Craven were not attached to the sequel. The second film starred Hewitt and Prinze Jr., who were joined by R&B/pop star Brandy, Mekhi Phifer, Jennifer Esposito, and Matthew Settle.

A direct-to-video third film titled I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer, was released in 2006 to highly negative reviews. The film didn’t feature any of the O.G. cast members and acted as a standalone sequel. Additionally, a Hawaii-based series of the same name as the original film was released in 2021 with a new cast on Prime Video for one season. 

With the resurgence of the Scream franchise, film executives are now dusting off the North Carolina-based franchise and giving it a new look. The film is set to be a passing of the torch flick, with the return of Hewitt and Prinze Jr., along with a set of newcomers to the franchise. 

Speaking of passing the torch, a new screenwriter is set to pen the fourth film. Jennifer Kaytin Robinson will write the screenplay for the upcoming film. Since creating MTV’s Sweet/Vicious, the entertainment industry has had their eyes on Robinson. 

The screenwriter went on to write HBO Max’s Unpregnant (starring The White Lotus’ Haley Lu Richardson and Euphoria’s Barbie Ferreira), co-write Marvel’s Thor: Love and Thunder with Oscar-winning filmmaker Taika Waititi, and had her directorial debut with Netflix’s Someone Great, starring Gina Rodriguez, Brittany Snow, DeWanda Wise, and Lakeith Stanfield. Robinson’s most recent success was the teen black comedy Do Revenge, inspired by the film Strangers on a Train, starring Riverdale’s Camila Mendes and Stranger Things’ Maya Hawke. 

 

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While there weren’t any queer characters within the film franchise, the TV series introduced queer storylines. However, Robinson knows a thing or two about creating queer characters, as seen in Someone Great, Thor: Love and Thunder, Do Revenge, and Unpregnant, so we’re keeping our fingers crossed that there will be plenty of well-rounded LGBTQ+ characters in the upcoming fourth film.