I Know What You Did Last Summer will reunite Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr for a legacy sequel, that will almost certainly have to ignore the original sequels. I Know What You Did Last Summer was part of a wave of 1990s self-referential horror flicks, alongside the Scream movies or Urban Legend. That said, I Know What You Did Last Summer - whose original ending was quite lame - was less meta than its contemporaries, and played as more of a mystery thriller. The cast soon returned for the poorly-received I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, and were once set to return for a third outing too.
As a refresher, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer ended with Hewitt's Julie seemingly killing series villain Ben Willis (AKA The Fisherman). However, the final scene - which could be a nightmare - has Ben return to life and attack her. Julie's fate was left ambiguous, though the forthcoming legacy sequel can shed light on what happened next. That said, I Know What You Did Last Summer's next entry may choose to ignore both I Still Know... (which has a killer clue) and 2006's I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer, with the latter even introducing a supernatural element to the franchise.
I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer Made The Killer A Zombie
I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer was a belated, straight-to-DVD release from future Slender Man helmer Sylvain White. The sequel was originally set to bring back Hewitt and Prinze Jr but was later reworked to feature new characters who are stalked by a mystery killer donning The Fisherman outfit (and hook). The finale reveals that none of the red herring suspects were actually the killer, as Ben Willis himself is revealed to be a zombie stalking the new cast for... some reason. Not only is this a bizarre twist, but the sequel also doesn't explain it.
I'll Alway Know What You Did Last Summer gives Ben/The Fisherman various new powers, including the ability to teleport, disappear into darkness and he can basically withstand any form of attack. His only weakness is his signature hook, and Final Girl Amber (Brooke Nevin) eventually "kills" him by shoving him into a snow blower. However, the last scene reveals that zombie Fisherman is still active. While it was probably hoped by the studio that they could milk the franchise further with low-budget STV sequels, it appears the poor reception to I'll Alway Know What You Did Last Summer killed that plan.
Will The Next I Know What You Did Last Summer Ignore The Sequels?
This leads to the I Know What You Did Last Summer legacy sequel. While it would be kind of awesome if it acknowledged the events of I'll Alway Know What You Did Last Summer and brought back zombie Fisherman, that's unlikely. Not only did Jennifer Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr skip it, but it's also relatively obscure now. The legacyquel could even pretend the second movie didn't happen as the Blumhouse Halloween sequels did with previous entries. This could give the makers of the new I Know What You Did Last Summer a clean slate to work from. It also means they don't have to explain how Ben Willis became a killer zombie either.