Buffy Star Confirms She Won’t Return To Iconic Movie Role
Sarah Michelle Gellar is primarily known as a television star thanks to her iconic performance as the lead actor in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. However, she is also a film star, one who is arguably best known for her performance in I Know What You Did Last Summer. That film spawned a franchise that has an upcoming sequel, but the Buffy star dashed fans’ hopes that she would return onscreen for a very simple reason: “I am dead.”
Her Character Is Dead
What Sarah Michelle Gellar is referring to, of course, is the fact that her character died back in the original I Know What You Did Last Summer. That movie went on to spawn two more sequels, but Gellar didn’t appear again after the first film with the exception of her photo appearing in I Still Know What You Did Last Summer. Therefore, the actor could only really return via something like a flashback, and she has confirmed that will not be happening.
Gellar’s Hubbie Is Returning
One reason that some fans assumed that Sarah Michelle Gellar might return to this franchise is that her husband is doing so. She is married to Freddie Prinze Jr., who appeared in the original I Know What You Did Last Summer and its first sequel. He will be reprising his role for this untitled fourth film, and while his spouse won’t be appearing onscreen, she is still going to contribute to this long-awaited sequel in an advisory capacity.
The Buffy Star Will Still Be Involved
The new film is being directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, someone Sarah Michelle Gellar considers her best friend. The two of them have a running joke that the Buffy actor has “an unofficial job, which is I am continuity.” Given her previous experience with the I Know What You Did Last Summer franchise, Gellar is able to aid the director by offering advice such as “‘Well, that would happen, or that wouldn’t happen with those characters.”
For longtime franchise fans, it’s reassuring to know that Sarah Michelle Gellar is still involved with this iconic horror franchise, even if it’s just in an unofficial advisory capacity. She and Freddie Prinze Jr. are the only cast members from the original I Know What You Did Last Summer who are returning for this fourth entry. Their involvement adds a welcome layer of continuity, without which the franchise might struggle to create a new identity (a bit like Scream tried to do without franchise lead Neve Campbell).
I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer Was A Flop
While the involvement of Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr. doesn’t magically guarantee this I Know What You Did Last Summer sequel will be good, it certainly can’t hurt. The third entry in the franchise (I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer) was a direct-to-DVD mess that had none of the original cast and tried to add some deeply unnecessary supernatural elements.
Notably, that movie currently has a 0 percent critical score on Rotten Tomatoes (yes, you read that correctly), so the franchise now has nowhere to go but up.
A Chance To Redeem The Franchise
As lifelong Buffy fans, we would have liked to see Sarah Michelle Gellar appear onscreen in the upcoming I Know What You Did Last Summer sequel. But her presence behind the scenes means that, at minimum, we can expect this latest film to be grounded in the kind of storytelling that made the first film such a hit. Plus, who better to help deliver some serious 90s nostalgia to audiences than Buffy Summers herself?
Source: Deadline
