I Know What You Did Last Summer is set to heat up this summer with slasher gore. This sequel will bring back Ray Bronson and Julie James, played by Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Jennifer Love Hewitt, respectively. After lots of photos and teases, we got a trailer for I Know What You Did Last Summer and it reveals what we thought it would. In the vein of Scream (2022), Julie and Ray are OG survivors who try to help the unfortunate new generation of victims stay alive. Prinze, Jr. and the new film’s director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson spoke with Entertainment Weekly recently to dish on a few big things about the new I Know What You Did Last Summer film.
Julie and Ray’s “Deaths” in the Previous Film Are “Outside Canon”
For some reason, there were people who didn’t understand how Julie and Ray could be alive. The last time we saw them on screen in the final scene of I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, the killer appears to pull Julie under a bed while Ray is in the bathroom. I always assumed that this was a nightmare sequence to mess with the audience for one last scare. The third film in the franchise is a standalone sequel and this new film is a direct sequel to I Still Know What You Did Last Summer. So nothing in that third film counts, honestly. But, Robinson has a slightly different take on that ending scene.
“So the way that I’ve approached the franchise is that I feel like those final scenes in the first two movies live outside the cannon,” she said to EW, “because in the first movie she gets attacked through the shower, through the glass door, and in the second movie, she gets pulled under the bed. So they’re both alive and well, and what I will say is that we have continued the tradition in our film.”
Ray Is A Struggling Bar Owner in His Hometown and Apparently Not With Julie Anymore
There was always the assumption that Julie James and Ray Bronson would get married after the events of I Still Know What You Did Last Summer. However, it seems that even if they did, they are no longer together. In fact, they don’t even live in the same city. Ray is in their coastal hometown of Southport, NC, which we see in the trailer. But, we also see one of the new main characters travel to seek Julie’s help. A previous behind-the-scenes photo reveals that Julie is in Raleigh, NC and still uses her maiden last name James. It’s not clear if they are both still single or not but this could rekindle a previous romance. And, one of the newbies could easily be their daughter.
While Julie seems to be living well, Ray is not doing so great. He is a bar owner and trying his best to stay a float, which isn’t the life he dreamed for himself. He’s older, grumpier, and not dealing with his feelings, just like you’d expect.
“He loves his town and not everyone else does, in his view, and he’s a little grumpier with the way the world has treated him since [the 1997 Southport Massacre],” said Prinze, Jr. “So he has gone through a lot, and I don’t know if he’s dealt with it the way the modern man deals with stuff, you know what I mean? He’s a guy from the ’90s like myself, so I think he’s probably bottled up a lot more of those feelings we’ve talked about.”
We Will Learn Karla’s Fate in This I Know What You Did Last Summer Sequel
Fans are constantly asking about Brandy’s character Karla. She survived the second film but there’s no word on if Brandy will make an appearance in this sequel or not. However, Robinson does say we will find out what happened to Karla.
“Here’s what I feel like I can say without spoiling anything,” Robinson stated. “We do find out what happened to her. I’m a huge fan of this franchise, and I came at this as a huge fan of this franchise. So that’s all I’ll say.”
I Know What You Did Last Summer hits theaters on July 18.
Content shared from nerdist.com.