Scream 7 | Jenna Ortega confirms her exit from film was nothing to do with scheduling

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Jenna Ortega was said to have left Scream 7 over scheduling issues. That, she confirms, was actually not the case at all.

There’s now a path forward for Scream 7, a movie that should have been relatively straightforward to put together following the success of its predecessors. However, after being expected to be in cinemas in 2024, Scream 7 in its original guise fairly quickly fell apart.

The catalyst was the firing of star Melissa Barrera over social media posts that were heavily critical of Israel. You can read more on that there.

Accusing Israel of genocide against Gaza was too much for Spyglass Entertainment, who issued a statement reading “we have zero tolerance for antisemitism or the incitement of hate in any form, including false references to genocide, ethnic cleansing, Holocaust distortion or anything that flagrantly crosses the line into hate speech.”

Jenna Ortega then was said to have scheduling issues that led to her dropping out of the film. Directors Radio Silence – Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin – passed the torch to Christopher Landon, and he then left the movie too.

Talking to The Cut, Jenna Ortega has clarified where she sat in the midst of this. Basically, she’s said that scheduling had nothing to do with it. Instead, “the Melissa stuff was happening, and it was all kind of falling apart.”

She wanted out.

“If Scream 7 wasn’t going to be with that team of directors and those people I fell in love with, then it didn’t seem like the right move for me in my career at the time.”

Hence her departure, but not for the reason that was originally given.

Radio Silence is now working on Ready Or Not 2, Christoper Landon – who we’ve had a long conversation with here – has Drop out this week. Jenna Ortega is heading to Glasgow to make a new film with JJ Abrams. And Scream 7? Neve Campbell is back, and Kevin Williamson – the writer of the first two films – is now directing. It’ll be out next year.