2 Unlikely Horror Franchises Are Coming Back - And At This Point I'm Not Even Surprised

The horror genre keeps riding the wave of legacy sequels and reboots, through which some of the biggest franchises have been brought back to life – so it’s not that surprising that two unlikely horror franchises are returning, too. The film industry has greatly benefited from reboots and legacy sequels in recent years, mostly in the horror genre, even if not all of these have succeeded. Franchises like The Exorcist and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre returned with one movie that didn’t perform well, while others like Friday the 13th continue to face many challenges that stop them from coming back.

Other horror franchises have greatly benefited from this trend, as happened with Halloween and Scream, while others will be getting a new chance, as is the case for The Exorcist. All these franchises are some of the most successful, popular, and profitable ones in the genre, so it was even expected that they would be rebooted at some point. Now, two unlikely horror franchises are also returning with new movies, and though they aren’t ones that would be expected to get a reboot, at this point I’m not surprised and it actually makes a lot of sense.

I Know What You Did Last Summer & Final Destination Are Getting Reboot/Sequels

Two Of The Most Popular Slasher Franchises Are Being Revived

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These unlikely horror franchises are I Know What You Did Last Summer and Final Destination. First is Final Destination, which began in 2000 with the movie of the same name directed by James Wong. Final Destination follows Alex Browning (Devon Sawa), a high school student who has a catastrophic vivid vision on board a plane that it will explode in mid-air, killing him and the rest. Alex, a teacher, and other classmates are removed from the plane, and minutes later, it explodes. However, as they were all meant to be on the plane and die, they disrupt Death’s plan, and they begin to die in strange circumstances.

Despite getting negative reviews, Final Destination was a box-office hit, and it spawned a franchise with four sequels, all of them following a new group of survivors trying to avoid Death’s seemingly unavoidable plan. Final Destination 5 was released in 2011 and was believed to be the final chapter in the franchise, but in 2019, a new movie was announced to be in development. After going through different writers and more, the sixth Final Destination movie, titled Final Destination: Bloodlines, found its directors in Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein, with a script by Guy Busick and Lori Evans Taylor.

It has also been said that Bloodlines will explore William Bludworth’s backstory, and Tony Todd is the only character from past Final Destination movies to return in the new movie.

What’s known about the story of Final Destination: Bloodlines is that it won’t follow the franchise’s formula of a group of survivors trying to cheat death, and it will focus on first responders and emergency workers, who are already familiar with death but will now be in its path. It has also been said that Bloodlines will explore William Bludworth’s backstory, and Tony Todd is the only character from past Final Destination movies to return in the new movie. At the time of writing, Final Destination: Bloodlines is scheduled for a May 16, 2025, release.

Tony Todd passed away on November 6, 2024.

The franchise of I Know What You Did Last Summer started in 1973 with Lois Duncan’s novel of the same name, which was loosely adapted into the 1997 slasher we all know and love (or, at least, I do). I Know What You Did Last Summer follows friends Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt), Ray Bronson (Freddie Prinze Jr.), Helen Shivers (Sarah Michelle Gellar), and Barry Cox (Ryan Phillippe), who accidentally run over a man. Believing him to be dead, they dump his body in the water, but he wakes up right before he falls and tries to attack them.

As they leave him to drown, the group swears to never discuss what happened, but a year later, they begin to receive threatening letters from someone who claims to know what they did. The group also starts to be stalked by a mysterious man in a black fisherman's coat and wielding a hook, with which he kills his victims. I Know What You Did Last Summer got mixed reviews but was a box office hit, granting it a direct sequel in 1998, titled I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, a straight-to-video standalone sequel in 2006, and a TV adaptation in 2021.

The new I Know What You Did Last Summer movie was announced to be in early development in early 2023, with Jennifer Kaytin Robinson directing and Sam Lansky and Robinson penning the script. Plot details about the new I Know What You Did Last Summer movie are unknown, but it’s confirmed to be a sequel to the second movie and social media will factor into the story. The new cast of I Know What You Did Last Summer includes Jonah Hauer-King, Billy Campbell, Nicholas Alexander Chavez, Madelyn Cline, Austin Nichols, Gabbriette, Chase Sui Wonders, Sarah Pidgeon, and Tyriq Withers.

Related I Really Need The New I Know What You Did Last Summer Movie To Avoid This Legacy Sequel Tradition The new I Know What You Did Last Summer movie is officially bringing back an original character, and I need it to avoid a legacy sequel tradition.

I Know What You Did Last Summer will also have its main characters back, as Prinze Jr. and Hewitt are confirmed to return as Ray and Julie, and it's currently scheduled for a July 18, 2025, release. It’s to be seen if Brandy will also reprise her role as Karla, the other survivor of the second movie, as well as how big Prinze Jr. and Hewitt’s roles will be now that there’s a new generation of characters involved.

Both Horror Franchises Are Unlikely Choices To Be Rebooted

Anything Is Possible In The Horror Genre

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I Know What You Did Last Summer and Final Destination are unlikely choices to get reboots for different reasons. I Know What You Did Last Summer wasn’t the best slasher of the 1990s and even Duncan herself was critical of it, as it made many changes to her novel, mostly to turn it into a slasher movie. As mentioned above, the movie wasn’t a critical success, but its popularity with the general audience is what led to its sequel being greenlit, but the second movie couldn’t carry on with the franchise.

I don’t think I need to mention how bad the 2006 straight-to-video standalone sequel, I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer, and the 2021 TV show were.

I Still Know What You Did Last Summer got an even worse critical reception and was a box office failure, ending the franchise’s theatrical branch – and I don’t think I need to mention how bad the 2006 straight-to-video standalone sequel, I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer, and the 2021 TV show were. Due to the critical reception of all the entries in the I Know What You Did Last Summer franchise and its reputation as a cheesy teen horror saga, it’s not a franchise one would have thought would be chosen for a reboot with a legacy sequel.

On the other hand, Final Destination is an unlikely choice because it already has many sequels. Surely, the quality of most of the sequels was a lot lower than the one of the first movie, but they’re still fairly good movies. Final Destination had already had a supposed final chapter with The Final Destination in 2009, but later came Final Destination 5, though, if we are talking about chronological order, The Final Destination would be the last movie in the saga, as the fifth movie was a surprise prequel.

Related How To Watch The Final Destination Movies In Order There is a subtle difference between the chronological and release date orders of the Final Destination franchise - which is the best way to watch?

I wouldn’t have expected Final Destination to get a sixth movie over a decade after the fifth movie, but luckily, the franchise still has an audience that is now excited about a new story. What’s going to be exciting with these two projects is how they will connect to the previous movies and whatever new stuff they bring to their respective franchises.

Horror Reboots Are Easy Wins For Hollywood Studios

Studios Have Taken Note Of Recent Horror Reboots

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What makes me not surprised that I Know What You Did Last Summer and Final Destination are coming back with new movies is that horror reboots have been a win for studios, regardless of their success. Nostalgia is a huge factor, and it can be quite profitable, so even if the movie is bad, it’s still highly likely to be a box-office hit thanks to the audience's curiosity and desire to relive the past somehow. In addition to this, the success of other, rebooted franchises shows the best way to revive these worlds and not die trying, as is the case of Scream.

It wouldn’t surprise me if other, smaller, and perhaps not very successful horror franchises were brought back.

Scream’s reboot succeeded as it was more of a soft reboot with a younger cast and legacy characters, and it's the model that studios have been trying to follow with other reboots. This and more make horror reboots a big business for Hollywood, so it wouldn’t surprise me if other, smaller, and perhaps not very successful horror franchises are brought back if I Know What You Did Last Summer 4 and Final Destination: Bloodlines succeed.