'I Know What You Did Last Summer': Madelyn Cline looked to Sarah Michelle Gellar as her 'blueprint'

Yahoo

7 days ago

Sarah Michelle Gellar was a fan favourite in 1997's I Know What You Did Last Summer, and now she's passing the baton to Madelyn Cline in the new remake. While Cline's character Danica Richards isn't exactly like Helen Shivers, there are a lot of similarities to the original Croaker Queen.
"You can pinpoint the cast members who were paying tribute to the original characters, the outline was all there," Cline told Yahoo Canada. "We filled the rest in with our own ideas and little specificities."
In the 2025 I Know What You Did Last Summer film (now in theatres), we first meet Danica at her engagement party in her hometown of Southport, North Carolina, as she's set to marry her rich, socialite fiancé Teddy (Tyriq Withers), attended by her best friend Ava (Chase Sui Wonders), and Ava's ex Milo (Jonah Hauer-King). Taking a late night drive after the party, along with their former friend Stevie (Sarah Pidgeon), they accidentally contribute to a driver swerving, and driving off a cliff.
A year later Ava returns to Southport for Danica's bridal shower, ahead of her planned wedding to her new fiancé, Wyatt (Joshua Orpin), after things didn't work out with Teddy. It's at that event that Danica opens a card that reads, "I know what you did last summer."
Understandably freaked out, that's the beginning of the bloody and fatal events that impact this group of friends, while they try to find out who's out to get them.There are many connections between the new characters in I Know What You Did Last Summer and the characters from the 1997 film. Primarily, Ava reaches out to Jennifer Love Hewitt's Julie James to get her help to try to stop the murderer who's targeting her and her friends.
And while Helen's death by the Fisherman is one of the most iconic horror scenes, that doesn't mean Gellar didn't make an appearance in the new film.
As Danica faces anxiety, grief and fear, she has a dream where she's just escaped death and ends up in an auditorium, seeing a blonde woman on the stage. It's Helen, in her full beauty queen look. There's a sassy exchange with Helen happy to poke fun at Danica, both the similarities and differences between them, when Helen's body starts to transform into a corpse.
Cline herself actually loved watching that scene back, "glued to the screen" watching Gellar's cameo, while also sharing that both Gellar and her husband, Freddie Prinze Jr., shared a lot about their experiences on the original film.
"She's our original Croaker Queen, she is Danica's blueprint," Cline said. "She had many, many conversations about her experience on the original, and stories that she and Freddie shared."
"The best way you can bring something back is to have the original people, their essence also involved, because ... they walked so we can run. They're the reason why we're here."
'I was just having the time of my life'
But as Cline stepped into several Scream Queen elements for I Know What You Did Last Summer, she wasn't incredibly confident in her ability to play out some of the near death moments.
"Sometimes I'm like, ... is this corny? Am I doing this right?" Cline admitted. "Where's the manual, where's the guidebook? ... What do I do with my voice? What do I do with my hands?"
What Cline felt more comfortable with is the outrageously silly dialogue she had as Danica.
"I just remember from from day one with Danica, I was just having the time of my life with her," Cline said. "She's so fun and quirky and lovable, and that's the thing about her, she has these quirks [and you] love her for it."
"She is serious and that is what makes me love her so much, ... she's just a deeply earnest person. ... She was already written so funny and I was just happy that they trusted me to go in there and give whatever my little sprinkle was."
The door for another 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' movie is open
While we won't reveal who the killer is in I Know What You Did Last Summer, we'll spoil that, unlike Helen, Danica makes it out alive. And just like the original film had the sequel I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, a mid-credits scene between Julie and Brandy Norwood, who played Karla Wilson, teases that there could be more in store for this story.
So where could Danica go in the future? Cline has some ideas.
"I think Danica, [she'll] definitely start drinking," Cline said. "She's definitely a Cosmopolitan girl. I think she graduates from Shirley Temples to Cosmos.
"I think Danica would be in like a revenge arc of sorts. But ... I think she's too soft. I think she would find some way to get revenge, but at the same time, I think she would be like, 'F—k that.' I think she would maybe pull a Julie and just move away, and maybe try to find another fiancé that's rich."