Sarah Michelle Gellar Surprises ‘IKWYDLS’ Audience, Sees Her Nanny in Attendance

Warning: This post contains spoilers for the new I Know What You Did Last Summer sequel, in theaters now.

Sarah Michelle Gellar had a surprise of her own when she visited an unsuspecting audience at a screening of I Know What You Did Last Summer.

The actress and director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson showed up unannounced during multiple opening-weekend theatrical showings of the new slasher, which is a sequel to the 1997 movie of the same name that starred Gellar, 48, as the doomed Helen Shivers.

Wearing “HELEN SHIVERS” T-shirts featuring her beauty-queen character’s face, Gellar and Robinson addressed one excited audience and thanked them for coming — with Robinson teasing, “Do not leave before the credits are done.”

On their way out, a woman in the theater yelled out, “Sarah, I’m your nanny!” — which prompted the Buffy the Vampire Slayer alum to turn around and say with a laugh, pointing to the other end of the theater, “Oh my God, that really is my nanny.”

She then backtracked into the theater to give the woman a quick hug, before making her exit.

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Gellar claimed in October 2024 that she was not returning for the latest installment, which is helmed by her real-life friend, Do Revenge director Robinson, 37.

“I am dead,” Gellar explained, referring to her character Helen’s brutal death at the hands of the Fisherman killer in the original film.

The actress even got in a little trouble when she posted a photo from the film’s set in Australia, where husband Freddie Prinze Jr. was filming his return as Ray Bronson in the sequel. Gellar again denied she would pop up on screen.

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But surprise — she does have a cameo in the film. When Madelyn Cline’s character Danica falls asleep at the police station, she has a dream in which Helen taunts her in the full Croaker Queen costume.

Robinson told PEOPLE, “As a super fan of this franchise, I was never not going to put Helen Shivers in the movie. And I didn’t lie — she is dead.”

The filmmaker added, “We wanted to bring Madelyn and Sarah together on screen, and I’m so excited about the results. I feel like it’s just so fun.”

“We recreated the Croaker Queen crown,” Robinson added. “That is an exact replica of the crown from the original movie. I really went for it in trying to create this David Lynch-y Helen Shivers dream sequence.”

I Know What You Did Last Summer is in theaters now.