Jennifer Love Hewitt has revealed she is in talks to reprise her role as Julie James in the latest I Still Know What You Did Last Summer movie. The actress shared the news during an exclusive interview with Entertainment Tonight.
In the interview, Hewitt divulged that the series’ third sequel is in early development. She also admitted that the prospect of returning to her role of the slasher franchise’s protagonist has been a bit overwhelming, but also exciting, for her.
The former Ghost Whisperer star said: “It’s in the cooker, let me just say that. I’ve done a couple of preliminary phone calls. I keep getting these messages from people going, ‘We’re so excited!’ I’m like, ‘Okay, but the train is moving really fast, and I haven’t gotten there yet.’ But it’s nice to know that people are excited at the possibility. Honestly, it’s wild to even think about. Truly, if it comes together, I don’t even know how I’m gonna feel except extremely overwhelmed and grateful.”
Hewitt also reflected on how much things have changed since she appeared in the first two films. But she’s also relishing what those advancements could bring to the next chapter that made her a scream queen in the late 1990s.
“Honestly, I’m terrified because it’s 26 years later. There’s power in being older, there’s power in having gone off and had 3 kids and there’s a sense of, ‘I can do anything now,'” the Golden Globe-nominated actress admitted.
“The vulnerability that was Julie James in 1 and 2 definitely doesn’t exist in this one, I don’t think. I’m excited to just show her grown up. I think she’s gotta go nuts. I don’t know who she’s fighting, but whoever it is is not gonna stand a chance,” Hewitt continued.
“Between me and a stunt double, we got this. I don’t play Julie James dead. That’s what I’m saying. I’ve said that at 18, and I’m gonna say it now at 45 so it doesn’t happen. If it all works out and (the movie) happens, I am ready to bring her back with 26 years of angst, knowledge, kick-assery, which I am turning into a word, and have some fun with it,” the actress added.
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Hewitt also explained why she thought making the second installment was even better than its predecessor. “The first one, I was terrified/ I was like, ‘Am I messing up the entire movie?’ I couldn’t sleep (when) we were doing the first movie because I literally would be up until the middle of the night with somebody chasing me and then they’d be like, ‘OK, it’s wrap. Go home.’ How does one sleep during this process?
“But the second one was just fun. It was fun,” the actress continued. “I got to make her tougher. She’d been through so much already and she wasn’t quite as vulnerable as she was in the first one. It was just silly, and fun, and we got to go to Mexico, and Jack Black was in it. It was just the best.”
The latest I Know What You Did Last Summer movie is being directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson. She previously wrote and helmed the 2019 Netflix romantic comedy, Someone Great, and co-penned and directed the 2022 teen black Comedy, Do Revenge. The filmmaker also co-scribed Thor: Love and Thunder with the feature’s helmer, Taika Waititi.
Leah McKendrick is writing the script for the upcoming horror movie, and Neil Moritz is serving as a producer. The follow-up’s official plot details have not yet been released. The fourth entry in the I Know What You Did Last Summer film series will be released on July 18, 2025 by Sony.
Freddie Prinze Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar are also expected to reprise their respective roles in the latest I Know What You Did Last Summer sequel. The She’s All That actor starred in the movie series’ first two installments. His real-life wife, meanwhile, appeared in the original entry, which was released the same year as she began her rein as the titular character in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer television show.
I Know What You Did Last Summer‘s first film is loosely based on the 1973 novel of the same name by Lois Duncan. It was directed by Jim Gillespie and written by Kevin Williamson, who also penned the first two Scream movies.
A third film in the series, I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer, was distributed in 2006. However, the drama didn’t feature any of the characters or actors from the first two installments.
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The franchise’s second sequel was followed by the television series of the same name. While it was also based on Duncan’s novel, Prime Video cancelled the show after only one season in 2021.
I Know What You Did Last Summer‘s distribution in 1997 by Columbia Pictures came a year after the first Scream movie was released in 1996. Its first follow-up, Scream 2, premiered in 1997, like I Know What You Did Last Summer, to critical acclaim. As a result, Scream, which starred Hewitt’s Party of Five co-star, Neve Campbell, became the most iconic teen slasher film series of the late 1990s.
Hewitt, who also garnered attention for starring on such television show as The Client List and Criminal Minds in the 2010s, wrote a book, Inheriting Magic, which was released this past December. She’s also currently starring on ABC’s 9-1-1, which will air its season 7 finale on May 30.
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