Sarah Michelle Gellar Out of I Know What You Did Last Summer Sequel

Sarah Michelle Gellar is not going to return for the I Know What You Did Last Summer reboot — but there’s a very good reason why.

“I am dead,” Gellar, who played Helen Shivers in the original 1997 movie, told People on Sunday, October 6.

Although she’s not planning on starring in the film, Gellar, 47, noted that she would be part of the film in an “unofficial” capacity.

“My best friend [Jennifer Kaytin Robinson] is directing it, so we joke that I have an unofficial job, which is I am continuity,” she shared with the outlet. “So I’m always the one telling her, ‘Well, that would happen, or that wouldn’t happen with those characters,’ so I do have kind of an unofficial job title.”

The sequel to the original 1997 film is set to be released on July 18, 2025. The film will star Gellar’s husband, Freddie Prinze Jr., who will reprise his role as Ray, as well as Chase Sui Wonders, Madelyn Cline, Sarah Pidgeon, Tyriq Withers and Jonah Haur-King.

I Know What You Did Last Summer centers on four teenage friends who are stalked by a killer one year after they cover up a car accident in which they supposedly killed a man. The original cast included Jennifer Love Hewitt, Gellar, Ryan Phillippe and Prinze Jr., 48. A direct sequel titled I Still Know What You Did Last Summer followed in 1998.

While Prinze Jr. confirmed in September he was returning for the sequel, Love Hewitt, 45, has yet to announce that she will be joining the project.

“The whole thing that came about was somebody said that it was happening, and Freddie and I both were like, ‘Wait, it’s happening?’” Hewitt exclusively told Us Weekly in May. “Nobody’s called me yet. We heard about it in the press. And so we were like, ‘Oh, OK, well let us know.’ So I think we’re in the same boat as everyone else.”

Hewitt did note that she would “definitely come back” for another sequel if the story felt right.

“Listen, I loved doing those movies. There is nothing more fun than doing a horror movie. It’s the best. Julie James was awesome,” she shared with Us at the time. “I do think that there’s unfinished business there, and so I would be happy to do it.”

Of a potential sequel, Hewitt added: “I think it’s more like what would the story be? How would it all work? Are we telling the best story for them? Is it an ending? Is it still a continuation? What’s happening? I think the story would be really important.”

At the end of the second movie, Julie (Hewitt) and Ray (Prinze Jr.) get married and buy a home together. In the final scene, Ray is brushing his teeth with the bathroom door locked while Julie is in the bedroom. As Julie looks in the mirror, the killer Ben (Muse Watson) appears from under the bed and pulls her down with him as she screams for help.