Sarah Michelle Gellar made a surprise cameo appearance in the new I Know What You Did Last Summer movie as she reprised the role of Helen Shivers in one of the key scenes.
Despite the character's death in the original film, fans were still hoping that Gellar would make an appearance in the 2025 reboot in some capacity. Initially, she denied that she would make an appearance as she iterated that Helen Shivers is already dead. However, when the film was finally released last weekend, fans discovered that she had been concealing a secret all along.
How Did Sarah Michelle Gellar's Helen Shivers Return in I Know What You Did Last Summer?
Gellar's Helen Shivers made an appearance in a dream-turned-nightmare sequence in I Know What You Did Last Summer involving Madelyn Cline’s character Danica Richards.
During the scene, Shivers is dressed similarly to the original film's Croaker Queen. However, as it goes, blood was running down and Helen's face was decomposing.
"I wanted it to feel really unsettling," director and co-writer Jennifer Kaytin Robinson explained to Variety why she decided to bring back Gellar in the film in a nightmare sequence.
"I wanted her to feel glowy and beautiful and effervescent and like the Helen Shivers that you remember, and then I wanted it to get darker and darker and darker as the scene progressed."
Many fans were delighted to see Gellar's Shivers in the film, as they had not expected her to appear, and they were glad that a way was found to bring her back, even if it was only for a brief dream-turned-nightmare sequence.
What Does Sarah Michelle Gellar Think of Her Surprise I Know What You Did Last Summer Cameo?
Gellar explained that Robinson brought the idea to her a few years ago when there were talks to reboot the franchise.
"Jenn Robinson brought it up to me like three or four years ago – this has been a long process – I thought, ‘It’s such a good idea, but you don’t know. Do people still love the movie? Do people still watch the movie?’" the actress said.
Robinson insisted to Gellar that she should make an appearance in the film, even though her character had already died.
Gellar added, "Jenn kept saying from the beginning to me, ‘You have to do something.’ And I said, ‘I’m dead. I’m dead. This isn’t supernatural.’ She was like, ‘I’m gonna figure it out.’ And she did and it was brilliant."
The experience of reprising the role of Helen Shivers was "surreal" for Gellar. "When they put that on my head and they put the dress on and then I stood there – they had a picture of me from when I was the Croaker Queen [in 1997] next to it — I was like, ‘Oh, this is crazy,’" she said.
Gellar apologized to the fans for insisting in the months leading up to the release that she wouldn't be appearing in the film. She said, "I’ve always said, ‘I’m dead.’ I did not lie. I do not lie. I am dead."
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