Sony released the first trailer for its highly-anticipated I Know What You Did Last Summer sequel on Tuesday, which introduces both new characters and brings back a few familiar faces.

Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. reprise their roles as Julie James and Ray Bronson from the 1997 original and the 1998 sequel I Still Know What You Did Last Summer.

This new film focuses on a new group of teenagers (Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Jonah Hauer King, Tyriq Withers and Sarah Pidgeon), who are taunted by a vicious stalker who somehow knows a ᴅᴇᴀᴅly secret from their past.

They ultimately get some advice from two survivors of the 1997 Southport Mᴀssacre – Julie and Ray – though it seems director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (Do Revenge) tried to bring another original cast member back: Sarah Michelle Gellar.

Gellar, 48, played Helen Shivers in the original, though she has consistently said she will not be in this project, despite being good friends with Robinson, starring in her 2022 film Do Revenge, and being married to Prinze Jr. since 2002.

The reason is a simple one: Helen Shivers was killed in the first film, but, as Robinson told Entertainment Weekly, that didn’t stop her from trying.

They ultimately get some advice from two survivors of the 1997 Southport Mᴀssacre – Julie and Ray – though it seems director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (Do Revenge) tried to bring another original cast member back: Sarah Michelle Gellar; seen April 5

Gellar, 48, played Helen Shivers (left) in the original, though she has consistently said she will not be in this project, despite being good friends with Robinson, starring in her 2022 film Do Revenge, and being married to Prinze Jr. since 2002

‘I tried, okay? I harᴀssed her! But she is ᴅᴇᴀᴅ. I tried to pitch some crazy s— too,’ Robinson joked. 

‘I was like, “What if it’s like you weren’t ᴅᴇᴀᴅ and you’re actually alive, but in hiding?'” the director recalled. 

Read More I Know What You Did Last Summer cast now

‘And Sarah’s like, “I was on ice. I was the most ᴅᴇᴀᴅ a person could be. You can see my frozen body,”‘ Robinson recalled.

‘I was like, “Yeah, but what if?” And she said, “I am ᴅᴇᴀᴅ. I am Sarah ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Gellar,”‘ Robinson joked.

A pH๏τo of her Helen character is seen at the trailer resting on her gravestone, though it seems that will be all fans will see of that character.

Back in February 2023, when Gellar was accepting the SCAD TVFest Icon Award in Atlanta, she revealed Robinson was already trying to pitch her.

‘As I explained to Jennifer, I am ᴅᴇᴀᴅ. I am ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ. On ice,’ Gellar joked of her character’s fate, who was found alongside Ryan Phillippe’s Barry in the icebox by Julie in the original film.

Gellar added, ‘She’s like, “Are you sure you’re ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ?” I’m like, “It’s soap dish ᴅᴇᴀᴅ. I don’t have a head. You can’t write for someone that doesn’t have a head. I’m ᴅᴇᴀᴅ.”‘

‘I tried, okay? I harᴀssed her! But she is ᴅᴇᴀᴅ. I tried to pitch some crazy s— too,’ Robinson joked

‘And Sarah’s like, “I was on ice. I was the most ᴅᴇᴀᴅ a person could be. You can see my frozen body,”‘ Robinson recalled.

‘I was like, “Yeah, but what if?” And she said, “I am ᴅᴇᴀᴅ. I am Sarah ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Gellar,”‘ Robinson joked

She was asked again about returning to the franchise in October 2024, though she teased a new role, of sorts, in the franchise.

‘My best friend [Jennifer Kaytin Robinson] is directing it, so we joke that I have an unofficial job, which is I am continuity,’ Gellar explained.

‘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 тιтle,’ she added.

I Know What You Did Last Summer will hit theaters nationwide on July 18.