Last fall, Melissa Barrera was fired from the Scream franchise, and her friend and costar Jenna Ortega quit the franchise in solidarity with Melissa. The rebooted franchise was built around Melissa’s Sam Carpenter, a character who is the secret daughter of Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich). Skeet even returned to the franchise as Billy’s ghost, helping his daughter along the way. I’m seriously not a fan of the Scream reboot. I love the original franchise so much, and I accept that Gen Z wants their own thing, but the reboot was poorly done and it’s way too stabby (people are being stabbed in the gut a million times and still walking around??). They tried to bring back the legacy franchise characters, but Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott was written out of the last film (Scream VI) because producers didn’t want to pay Neve what she was worth. Well, now that the studio has fired Barrera – and Ortega’s out the door – the same studio went crawling back to Neve and begged her to save the franchise once again. Neve agreed. She recently spoke to Entertainment Tonight about what’s happening there:
Neve Campbell is ready to face off against Ghostface once again. While both Scream (2022) and Scream VI focused primarily on a newer generation of teens being stalked by the masked killer, Campbell revealed to ET’s Rachel Smith that the seventh installment will take the franchise back to its roots and focus on Sidney Prescott, the central character of the first four films.
“We are going to follow Sidney,” Campbell confirmed, adding that the idea is in the same vein as Jamie Lee Curtis’ highly publicized return to the role of Laurie Strode in the Halloween franchise, 40 years after the original. “They did pitch the concept to me, and it’s the reason that I jumped on board,” Campbell added, after admitting she has not received a final script just yet but is hoping to receive it this week.
“I love these movies, they are so much fun to be a part of, I’m so grateful for them, I could never have imagined being a part of a movie that would have lasted this many decades,” Campbell gleefully admitted.
The first Scream was released in theaters nearly 30 years ago in 1996. “The fandom is nuts, they are incredible and very passionate about these films,” she added. “I’m excited to give them a new one!”
While Campbell returned for the legacy reboot Scream (2022), she was noticeably absent from Scream VI following a pay dispute. The actress spoke out publicly in 2022 that she would sadly not be returning because she “felt the offer that was presented to me did not equate to the value I have brought to the franchise.” In a rare move, the production studio behind the films, Spyglass Media Group, listened to Campbell and came back to her with a proper offer for this next sequel.
The Party of Five actress admitted it was “so satisfying” to be heard by the studio. “I’m super grateful that they came around on it. [Scream VI] just didn’t feel right. I couldn’t after this many decades of carrying a franchise, to feel undervalued and underpaid and to know that it wouldn’t have happened to a man in that way. It just wouldn’t make sense for me to walk on that set. So, I’m glad I stood up for myself,” Campbell said before adding she hopes it inspired others in the industry too.
I’m also really glad that producers came back and offered her real money for playing this iconic character. It was insulting that they thought they could do a Scream movie without her, and that’s what started the curse on the franchise. That being said, there’s no way Spyglass would have gone back to Neve with this offer if their gambit to build the franchise around Melissa hadn’t blown up in their faces. Going back to Neve was basically their only option. I kind of doubt they’ll recast the Sam Carpenter role, right? They might need to just reboot this mess all over again.
ET also says that Courteney Cox and Patrick Dempsey are in talks to return to the franchise. Dempsey’s character (a cop) is supposed to be married to Sidney, and Cox would be returning as Gale Weathers. I know his character died, but I’d love it if Liev Schreiber found a way to make a cameo.
Photos courtesy of kpa Publicity / Avalon and Avalon Red.