The horror genre's renaissance is showing no signs of slowing down, with some of the best horror movies returning to theaters with new sequels. One of the summer's most highly anticipated upcoming horror movies is finally here: the new I Know What You Did Last Summer. Jennifer Love Hewitt is back as Julie James, and recently shared what she needed to know about her signature character before signing on.
First reactions to I Know What You Did Last Summer were positive, and longtime fans were thrilled that both Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. returned to their roles. But JLH needed some convincing, specifically related to how Julie was handling her trauma all these years later. As she said in a ScreenRant TikTok:
For me personally, I needed to know that Julie had not let this go. Not in the sense that, like, she had moved on and lived a life and figured out how to function and all those things. But that in her personal trauma was always going to be there, because I wouldn't have believed it otherwise for her.
Points were made. Since the sequel, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer is canon, Julie survived two harrowing near-death experiences as a result of The Fisherman. So, having her be completely over it would be a non-starter for Jennifer Love Hewitt in the new movie. Luckily, that wasn't the case, and the Ghost Whisperer star signed on for her third appearance in the slasher franchise.
Footage of Julie in the new I Know What You Did Last Summer trailer was limited, so her story is a mystery for moviegoers gearing up to see the horror flick this weekend. But it sounds like Hewitt thought she was handled well enough to return to the role.
Later in the same interview, JLH spoke more about where we find the character in this latest horror flick. In her words:
And so I really wanted to kind of lean into that to see that that time and that trauma had sort of sat with her. And also, I think Julie is somebody who has spent 27 years grieving the girl that was on the road that night that never got to continue. I wanted to kind of see that in her, obviously in a very quick storytelling of her time in the movie, and I feel like we did that. So, I was really happy about that.
Now I'm even more excited to see I Know What You Did Last Summer this weekend. The movie's marketing has been guarding its secret, especially regarding how Julie and Ray will factor into the story. I'm personally hoping they manage to survive another encounter with The Fisherman, and will therefore be available for future sequels. What can I say? I love this franchise.
The hype surrounding this new slasher is high, so it has the potential to be a horror blockbuster. CinemaBlend's I Know What You Did Last Summer review praised it as "a surprising mid-summer treat", and praised director/co-writer Jennifer Kaytin Robinson for her love for the franchise.
The new I Know What You Did Last Summer is in theaters now as part of the 2025 movie release list. We'll just have to see if fans agree with Jennifer Love Hewitt regarding the handling of Final Girl Julie James.