Story details about the upcoming I Know What You Did Last Summer sequel have been revealed, and they confirm the movie’s biggest challenge, which worries me even more. Among the horror franchises coming back to life in 2025 through the trends of reboots and legacy sequels is I Know What You Did Last Summer. The franchise, which hasn’t had a theatrically released movie since 1998, is back with a legacy sequel that brings back the two survivors of the first movie: Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and Ray Bronson (Freddie Prinze Jr).
Following the style of legacy sequels, the new I Know What You Did Last Summer movie will introduce a new generation of characters, who will lead the story. This means that Julie and Ray won’t be at the front and center anymore, but they will have a role in the story. I Know What You Did Last Summer is scheduled for a July 18, 2025, release, and the first poster has been revealed, along with plot details – and the latter confirm the sequel’s biggest challenge, which is quite worrying and could ruin the movie.
I Know What You Did Last Summer Sequel Has The Exact Same Plot As The First Movie, & That’s A Problem
Another Accident & A New Vengeful Killer
The I Know What You Did Last Summer franchise began in 1997 with the movie of the same name, directed by Jim Gillespie and loosely based on Lois Duncan’s 1973 novel. I Know What You Did Last Summer follows friends Julie, Ray, Helen (Sarah Michelle Gellar), and Barry (Ryan Phillippe), who, on their way back from the beach on July 4, accidentally hit a man on the road. Believing he’s ᴅᴇᴀᴅ, they decide to throw his body into the water and forget it happened, but the man awakens right before being thrown. Still, they carry on with their plan and believe the man drowned.
The accident and their actions have a direct impact on the group, fracturing their relationships. A year later, when Julie and Barry return to town, the four begin to be stalked and killed by a mysterious person who claims to know what they did last summer. It’s eventually revealed that the killer is the man they thought they killed, a fisherman named Ben Willis (Muse Watson), who wants revenge for leaving him for ᴅᴇᴀᴅ – however, that same night, he killed his late daughter’s boyfriend, as he caused the car accident that killed her.
While I absolutely expected the upcoming legacy sequel to have a similar premise of an accident and a vengeful mysterious killer, I wasn’t expecting it to be the exact same as the first movie.
The sequel, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, takes place in the Bahamas, where Ben Willis follows Julie and her friends, among them his son, Will, who has been posing as Julie’s friend. Now, while I absolutely expected the upcoming legacy sequel to have a similar premise of an accident and a vengeful mysterious killer, I wasn’t expecting it to be the exact same as the first movie. The official synopsis for I Know What You Did Last Summer 2025 reads as follows:
When five friends inadvertently cause a ᴅᴇᴀᴅly car accident, they cover up their involvement and make a pact to keep it a secret rather than face the consequences. A year later, their past comes back to haunt them and they’re forced to confront a horrifying truth: someone knows what they did last summer…and is hell-bent on revenge. As one by one the friends are stalked by a killer, they discover this has happened before, and they turn to two survivors of the legendary Southport Mᴀssacre of 1997 for help.
The only difference so far is the involvement of Julie and Ray as the two survivors who can offer help to the new characters, but even that doesn’t feel quite right. Having Julie and Ray only as mentor figures feels undeserving for them, but at the same time, the movie would have to justify the killer also going after them, and that might not feel organic. Knowing this, the I Know What You Did Last Summer sequel is now risking being repeтιтive and a borderline remake rather than a legacy sequel.
I Know What You Did Last Summer’s TV Show Further Confirms The Sequel’s Biggest Challenge
The Story Has Already Been Recycled, & It Failed
The TV series was marketed as a “modern take” on Duncan’s novel, but the truth is that it re-used the first movie’s premise and failed at making it “modern.”
Before the upcoming sequel, the franchise’s latest attempt at a return was the 2021 TV show, also тιтled I Know What You Did Last Summer. The TV series was marketed as a “modern take” on Duncan’s novel, but the truth is that it re-used the first movie’s premise and failed at making it “modern.” Just like the movie, the events of the I Know What You Did Last Summer TV show kick-off after a group of friends is involved in a car accident in which they kill the twin sister of one of them – however, they believe the wrong sister survived, and she ᴀssumes her idenтιтy.
A year later, they are haunted by a mysterious killer who takes them down one by one, but the killer’s idenтιтy reveal is not only underwhelming but a bit nonsensical, too. The I Know What You Did Last Summer TV show proved that reusing the premise of the first movie isn’t guaranteed to work, and even more challenging is “modernizing” it. Unsurprisingly, I Know What You Did Last Summer was canceled after one season, but now the legacy sequel is facing the same challenge the TV show did.
How I Know What You Did Last Summer’s Sequel Can Avoid Being Repeтιтive
I Know What You Did Last Summer’s Sequel Has To Be Smart
As mentioned above, the biggest challenge the I Know What You Did Last Summer legacy sequel is now facing is not being repeтιтive. The upcoming I Know What You Did Last Summer movie can’t have a twist like that of Ben Willis, nor one like Will Benson in the second movie, and definitely not one like in the TV show. I Know What You Did Last Summer has to be creative but also believable in its villain reveal and how this person is linked to the main characters (which could be just through the accident or something more personal).
My biggest concern is how I Know What You Did Last Summer will use Julie and Ray, as it risks repeating a legacy sequel mistake in which the legacy characters are just used for nostalgia, and are either killed or severely injured so they can be taken out of the story early. If Julie and Ray are to be some sort of “mentors” to the new characters, I Know What You Did Last Summer has to give them a proper story and a good reason to get themselves involved in this and give up their peace.
I Know What You Did Last Summer can still bring some positive surprises and successfully revive the franchise after the disappointment of the TV show – it just has to be smart and creative with how it uses the first movie’s premise. However, at this time, I’m worried that it will rely too much on nostalgia and not bring anything new to the franchise that justifies its existence.
