Amazon greenlights ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ series: Here’s why we’re excited

Amazon Prime Video will soon be adding an I Know What You Did Last Summer series to their library as the show receives a series order.

Amazon is adding another popular IP to its ever-growing list of developing original series. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Amazon Studios has ordered a YA horror based on the popular 1997 slasher film I Know What You Did Last Summer and the preceding novel by Lois Duncan.

The film starred Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr., Jennifer Love Hewitt and Ryan Phillippe as teenagers stalked by a killer seeking revenge for a deadly cover-up they participated in the previous summer. Sara Goodman, of Gossip Girl and Preacher fame, will write and executive produce the series.

Amazon hasn’t released an official synopsis for the series just yet, but it is planned as an updated, modernized take on the classic story with some surprising twists.

“We are thrilled to have ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ with our incredible partners at Amazon Studios. Neal Moritz and Original Film’s development consistently fires on all cylinders and that is proven once again with Sara Goodman’s contemporary and pulsating character weaving suspense thriller,” said Sony Pictures TV Studios co-president Jason Clodfelter.

Why should fans be excited for an I Know What You Did Last Summer reboot?

Reboot fatigue is real,  just yesterday alone, four new revivals/reboots were announced. That’s on top of the dozens of others in the works. Hollywood is intent on milking old stories until they’re dead than taking a chance on original storytelling. It’s disappointing, but for now, it’s the nature of the beast.

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Still, not all reboots and revivals are immediately terrible. There have been some gems over the years and some reboots have even gone on to be more successful than the original, or given fans a chance to get closure.

I’m guessing that Amazon saw how much buzz Scream 5 was getting and decided to cash in on the other big slasher franchise of the 1990s that went toward revitalizing the genre.

Scream also got a spin-off television series on MTV and while it never reached astronomical ratings, it did develop a loyal fanbase.

While I Know What You Did Last Summer did spawn two sequels: I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998) and I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer (2006), they were never as successful as the original.

What excites me about the new show is it seems like Hollywood is inching closer and closer to the revitalization of the slasher genre, which has waned significantly over the past few decades.

Not only that, but Goodman’s involvement gives me hope that this show could be a — forgive me for the cliche — bloody good time. The only thing I’m somewhat cautious about is the labeling of the series as “YA.” Does that mean they intend it to water it down to PG-13 (the original was rated R)?

Amazon has ordered quite a few YA scripts over the past year to compete with Netflix. Their original library is lacking content geared toward the teenage/young adult demographic. I’ll still give I Know What You Did Last Summer a chance regardless, but I hope they let Goodman imbibe the show with some of the magic that made Preacher such a hit for AMC.

What do you think about an I Know What You Did Last Summer television series? Let us know your thoughts and predictions in the comments below!