Director Begged Sarah Michelle Gellar to Return for ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ — But Even She Said, “I’m Sarah Dead Gellar”

Sarah Michelle Gellar fans, brace yourselves — Helen Shivers is not coming back from the dead.

Writer-director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson has confirmed that despite her “relentless” efforts to bring Gellar back for the upcoming I Know What You Did Last Summer sequel, the actress stood firm: Helen is dead, and she’s staying that way.

“I tried, okay? I harassed her!” Robinson told Entertainment Weekly with a laugh. “But she is dead.” That didn’t stop the director from tossing around some truly out-there ideas to revive the fan-favorite character. “I tried to pitch some crazy shit too. I was like, ‘What if you weren’t dead and you were actually alive, but in hiding?’”

But Gellar wasn’t having it. “She was like, ‘I was on ice. I was the most dead a person could be. You can see my frozen body.’ I said, ‘Yeah, but what if?’ And she just said, ‘I am dead. I am Sarah Dead Gellar.’”

The brutal (and iconic) death of Helen Shivers in the original 1997 film has gone down as one of the most memorable slasher kills of the era. And while the new film is all about reviving the franchise, it won’t be rewriting canon.

Still, the legacy continues. Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. are officially returning to their roles as Julie and Ray in the new sequel, which picks up years after the events of the first two films. The new cast will include Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Lola Tung, Nicholas Alexander Chavez, and more.

Though Gellar won’t be onscreen, she’s still involved behind the scenes — sort of. “My best friend is directing it, so we joke that I have an unofficial job,” Gellar shared. “I’m continuity. I keep telling her, ‘That would happen. That wouldn’t happen.’ So I do have kind of an unofficial job title.”

I Know What You Did Last Summer slashes into theaters on July 18 — no resurrections required.