With filming underway, Scream 7 is back on track. But with its two original leads gone, we consider the story arc that may never be concluded.
NB: The following contains spoilers for the earlier films in the Scream franchise.
It isn’t the end, or even the beginning of the end, but the end of the beginning. After months of firings, hirings, deals and grumpy quotes in the press, Scream 7 has finally gone into production.
Kevin Williamson, the storyteller behind the first two slasher horror films from the 1990s (and 2011’s Scream 4), has been installed as the new director. Neve Campbell, having settled some much-publicised disagreements over her salary, has been coaxed back as its star, and will join Courtney Cox, another franchise legacy character, at the top of Scream 7’s bill.
Production company Spyglass Media will no doubt be glad that a profitable franchise is back on track. But at the same time, one small detail hasn’t been talked about much amid the media broohaha: there’s no logical way that Scream 7 can satisfyingly conclude two of the story arcs set up in its predecessors, 2022’s Scream and 2023’s Scream VI.
It’s worth rewinding time a bit to look at what those earlier films put in place. Although billed as a reboot (hinted at by its confusing, numberless title) the 2022 Scream is a direct continuation of a film series rapidly approaching its 30th anniversary. It again takes place in Woodsboro, a town that lives in the shadow of Ghostface – a guise adopted by a succession of psychotic, knife-wielding killers.
Although familiar faces from earlier films return – Courtney Cox’s icy journalist Gale, David Arquette’s now retired sheriff Dewey, Neve Campbell’s veteran Final Girl, Sidney – the story really revolves around its younger cast. We’re introduced to Jenna Ortega’s Tara Carpenter, a teenager who narrowly survives an attack from yet another killer in the classic Ghostface getup of cloak and glowering mask. Tara’s brush with death sees her estranged older sister Sam (Melissa Barrera) rush back to Woodsboro years after she fled the godforsaken place.
Sam is among the most intriguing characters we’ve seen in the franchise to date. In her mid-20s during the events of Scream, she’s survived some troubled teenage years triggered by her particularly dark origins: it’s revealed that Sam is the daughter of Billy Loomis, one of the Ghostface killers in the original 1996 Scream, and is by extension the granddaughter of Scream 2’s killer, Nancy Loomis (Billy’s vengeful mother). Let’s face it – finding out you’re the descendant of two mask-wearing serial killers is enough to force anyone off the rails.
Haunted by visions of her father, Sam is an unpredictable figure in both the 2022 Scream and its sequel. Sam’s sharp sense of humour and protectiveness towards her younger sister humanise her, but screenwriters James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick constantly tease at a murkier side inherited from her murderous dad. Sam herself says at one stage that she’s worried she’ll become like her father; a fear seemingly born out by her skills with a knife. In Scream, she despatches one Ghostface by stabbing him no fewer than 22 times; in Scream VI, she ups the ante further by stabbing a villain to death a total of 41 times (thanks to Fandom for these stats).
In their two films, Vanderbilt and Busick were clearly plotting some sort of trajectory for Sam. In Scream (2022), she gets the memorable line, “Never fuck with the daughter of a serial killer”; in the Manhattan-set sequel, she actually gets to put on her father’s old Ghostface costume and ask the immortal question, “What’s your favourite scary movie…?”
Scream 7 would, presumably, conclude Sam’s character arc in some way. Would she give into the murderous side of her nature and become a serial killer, or would her story end with her vanquishing her demons and closing the Ghostface chapter of her life for good? The problems that have beset Scream 7’s production mean we’ll almost certainly never find out.
In November 2023, months after Scream VI came out, Melissa Barrera was suddenly fired – reportedly because of her social media posts in support of Palestine. Days later, Jenna Ortega also dropped out, purportedly because of scheduling conflicts involving her hit Netflix series, Wednesday.
Amid the turmoil, Scream 7 director Christopher Landon tweeted – then hastily deleted – an appeal for calm. “Everything sucks,” he wrote. “Stop yelling. This was not my decision to make.”
At the time, screenwriters James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick were still writing the seventh film’s script. There were some rumours that they were already busy reworking the story to allow for Ortega’s absence when Barrera was suddenly ousted; others suggested they’d already written a draft that sidestepped the Tara character altogether. Whatever the truth was, the loss of their two leading characters must have thrown them through a creative loop; it’d be a bit like trying to write Return Of The Jedi without being allowed to include Luke Skywalker or Princess Leia.
Christopher Landon, previously the director of horror comedies Happy Death Day and Freaky, had been hired to take over from Matt Bettinelli Olpin and Tyler Gillet – directors of the fifth and sixth Scream films – in August 2023. Within months, Landon had announced his departure. All the yelling, it seems, had worn him down.
“I guess now is as good a time as any to announce I formally exited Scream 7 weeks ago,” Landon wrote in a surprisingly candid Twitter/X statement. “This will disappoint some and delight others. It was a dream job that turned into a nightmare. And my heart did break for everyone involved. Everyone. But it’s time to move on…”
Things went rather quiet on the production for several months, presumably while Spyglass Media scrabbled around in the ashes to find something salvageable.
In March 2024 came some unexpected news. Neve Campbell, having previously left the franchise over a very public disagreement over her pay cheque, announced that she was coming back. In a further twist, Campbell, writing on Instagram, revealed that Kevin Williamson was stepping in as the new director.
An image of the screenplay’s first page confirmed that James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick were still its writers, though with Barrera and Ortega gone, it’s anyone’s guess what its story will entail. Last year, there was a plot leak which, if genuine, may have provided an insight into Vanderbilt and Busick’s original plans. The sequel would have seen Tara murdered and Sam spiralling psychologically in the aftermath – perhaps becoming a Ghostface killer herself.
Whether that was accurate or not, Scream 7's story will almost certainly revolve around Sydney Prescott, given Campbell’s much-publicised return. Sam and Tara’s absence will no doubt be explained via a line of dialogue or two. But for this writer, at least, not being able to give the characters a proper conclusion is a real missed opportunity. What could have been the final part of a trilogy about two likeable yet singularly ill-fated sisters instead runs the risk of being just another slasher sequel.
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