The Riverdale star was originally set to headline the new entry in the stalker horror film, but her schedule would force her out of the movie.
It seems as though both properties that originated from Kevin Williamson-written films are facing casting disarray. As Scream 7 was in development, it was intended to pick up with Scream VI stars Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega reprising their roles. Then, Barrera would come under scrutiny for controversial statements made on social media in response to the Isreal-Hamas conflict, and the production would let her go. Following that, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice star Jenna Ortega would also leave the sequel, citing her schedule becoming conflicted with other projects.
Now, the I Know What You Did Last Summer sequel is also seeing its star exit the project. According to Deadline, Riverdale actress Camila Mendes, who had signed on to star in the urban legend tale, could not make the production date on schedule due to her commitments on the upcoming big-budget franchise production of Amazon MGM Studios and Mattel’s Masters of the Universe reboot. In that film, Mendes is set to play Teela, a warrior for Eternia who fights alongside He-Man, who is set to be portrayed by Nicholas Galitzine.
Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (Do Revenge – which also starred Camila Mendes) is attached to direct the I Know What You Did Last Summer sequel from a screenplay by Leah McKendrick (M.F.A.), and McKendrick told Collider a while back that the new sequel will reckon with “some big ideas about hero and villain, right and wrong, how your skeletons come back to haunt you. And in the age of the internet and the age where fame is such a revered concept, the creation of TikTok and social media, who is Julie James in a world where there are no secrets anymore?“ McKendrick also said that when she went in to pitch her take to Sony, the most important things they wanted to hear about were “the accident, the event that kicks it off, and who the killer is.“
Loosely based on the 1973 novel by Lois Duncan, the first I Know What You Did Last Summer movie was scripted by Scream writer Kevin Williamson and directed by Jim Gillespie. It revolved around four young friends (Jennifer Love Hewitt, Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Ryan Phillippe) who are stalked by a hook-wielding killer one year after they supposedly killed a man in a car accident and covered it up. The film was a big success at the box office, spawning a theatrical sequel, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, and a direct-to-video follow-up, I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer. There was also a short-lived series which streamed on Prime Video in 2021 before it was cancelled.