This article contains minor spoilers about the new\u00a0I Know What You Did Last Summer movie.\n<\/p>\n
Sarah Michelle Gellar<\/a> surprised a packed screening of I Know What You Did Last Summer <\/a> \u2014 and spotted a very familiar face in the crowd.\n<\/p>\n To mark the opening of the horror sequel, Gellar and director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson<\/a> surprised an unsuspecting crowd. Decked out in matching “HELEN SHIVERS” T-shirts \u2014 the name of the beauty queen that Gellar played in the original 1997 slasher \u2014 the duo walked out to greet the audience.\n<\/p>\n “I’m Jenn Robinson, director and co-writer, and I don’t know if you know who this is \u2014 she’s a brand new actor, Sarah Michelle Gellar,” Robinson quipped, as captured in an Instagram<\/a> video. She then thanked the crowd for attending the film’s opening weekend before advising: “Do not leave before the credits are done. Stay.”\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Robinson then turned to Gellar, adding, “And you never know who you’re gonna see in this movie.”\n<\/p>\n “Could be anyone,<\/a>” joked the actress. “Enjoy the movie.”\n<\/p>\n As the pair turned to leave, a voice called out from the crowd: “Sarah, I’m your nanny.”\n<\/p>\n The Buffy the Vampire Slayer<\/a> alum turned, locked eyes with the speaker, and exclaimed, “Oh my God!”\n<\/p>\n Laughing, she pointed across the theater and told the crowd, “That really is my nanny.” The video concluded with Gellar embracing her nanny before exiting the theater.\n<\/p>\n Gellar, who shares two children with her husband and fellow franchise star Freddie Prinze Jr<\/a>, said in October 2024 that she was not returning for the legacy sequel, which is helmed by her real-life friend and Do Revenge director Robinson.\n<\/p>\n Sarah Michelle Gellar in 1997’s ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’.<\/p>\n Columbia Pictures\/Courtesy Everett<\/p>\n “I am dead,” Gellar said simply, referring to the fact that her character was murdered by the Fisherman in the original film.\n<\/p>\n Robinson reiterated this while speaking to Entertainment Weekly earlier this year<\/a>, claiming that she approached the actress about reprising her role only to be shut down.\n<\/p>\n “I tried to pitch some crazy s— too. I was like, ‘What if it’s like you weren’t dead and you’re actually alive, but in hiding?,'” she recalled. “And Sarah’s like, ‘I was on ice. I was the most dead a person could be. You can see my frozen body.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, but what if?’ And she said, ‘I am dead. I am Sarah Dead Gellar.'”\n<\/p>\n Sign up for Entertainment Weekly<\/a>‘s free daily newsletter<\/a> to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.\n<\/p>\n Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Sarah Pidgeon, Tyriq Withers, and Jonah Hauer-King in ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’.<\/p>\n Brook Rushton\/Columbia Pictures<\/p>\n Despite all the protest, Gellar does appear briefly in the new film. She dons her classic Croaker Queen outfit and appears to Madelyn Cline<\/a>‘s Danica in a dream. Robinson has since told PEOPLE<\/a> that Gellar’s return was always in the cards: “As a super fan of this franchise, I was never not going to put Helen Shivers in the movie. And I didn’t lie \u2014 she is dead.”\n<\/p>\n Like the original, 2025’s I Know What You Did Last Summer follows a group of teenagers \u2014 Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Sarah Pidgeon, Tyriq Withers, and Jonah Hauer-King<\/a> \u2014 who are stalked by a mysterious stranger who knows all about the awful mistake they made a year prior. But this time, the teens can call upon the guidance of Julie (Jennifer Love Hewitt<\/a>) and Ray (Prinze), who have lived through a similar tragedy.<\/p>\n