One I Know What You Did Last Summer Character Died Before Last-Minute Reshoots

This article contains spoilers for "I Know What You Did Last Summer" 2025.

Going into the 2025 revival of "I Know What You Did Last Summer," fans generally understood that main character Ava (Chase Sui Wonders) would probably make it out of the story alive. She was the main character who, much like Jennifer Love Hewitt's Julie 28 years ago, at least tried to do the right thing during that messy inciting manslaughter incident.

Fans were less certain about the fate of Danica (Madelyn Cline), a character who is basically the spiritual reincarnation of Helen Shivers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) from the first film. Helen was tragically killed after a very suspenseful chase sequence, in a moment that still haunts fans decades later. "I Know What You Did Last Summer" is generally seen as a lesser version of the "Scream" franchise, but Helen's death (and those suspenseful minutes beforehand) is one of the few instances where the movie rises above that reputation. Helen's murder stung in a way that no other death in this franchise ever did. 

Perhaps that's why, when the reboot originally decided to kill off Danica in a similar manner, test audiences revolted. In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Madelyn Cline revealed that her character's fake-out death was originally supposed to be her real death, only to be changed fairly late into the production process after some focus group backlash.

"I only got the news that I was coming back about two-and-a-half weeks ago," Cline explained. Her interview took place on June 28, which means these additional scenes were filmed a little over a month before the movie released in theaters. "We shot all those very, very end scenes about two weeks ago."

The best argument for miraculously saving Danica's life is that it serves as a sort of spiritual justice for Helen Shivers. Danica wasn't just similar to Helen in personality and appearance; she had a whole dream sequence where she seemingly talked to Helen's ghost. Helen's fate hung over Danica's head like the sword of Damocles, to the point where it felt like the movie wasn't simply asking us "Is Danica going to die?", but "Is Danica going to end up like Helen?" 

To spare Danica from Helen's fate, to give her the chance to move on from this hook-related mayhem in a way that Helen never could, definitely feels like a wholesome note on which to end her arc. The only problem is that horror isn't always supposed to be wholesome. Horror is supposed to be scary, harsh, even cruel; viewers are supposed to believe that the stakes are real and that a happy ending isn't guaranteed. Test audiences probably weren't thrilled about Helen's death either, but the writers kept it in anyway because they understood this wasn't supposed to be a feel-good story. 

In a lot of ways, "I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025)" feels like it's repeating the same mistakes as the recent "Scream" sequels. Those last two "Scream" films, with their Core Four that walk off stab wounds like they're nothing, have killed a lot of the suspense in the series in their quest to keep the viewers happy. It's a good thing that viewers are rooting for the main characters to survive, but that doesn't mean horror movies should throw all realism out the window to grant the audience's wishes. Sometimes the viewers are supposed to be bummed out. The first "I Know What You Did Last Summer" understood this, and that's why this new reboot will never escape its shadow.