Matthew Lillard calls Scream 7 “a risk that I was excited to take”
Fans of the Scream franchise were surprised when it was announced that Matthew Lillard and Scott Foley, who played Ghostface killers in the original Scream and Scream 3, respectively, and did not appear to make it out of those movies alive, are in the cast of the latest sequel, Scream 7. David Arquette is also back as the dearly departed Dewey. None of the actors have revealed exactly how these dead characters will be returning in the film – but Lillard has said that the movie was a risk he was excited to take.
Spyglass Media and Paramount Pictures once intended to make a Scream 7 that would have starred Scream (2022) and Scream VI leads Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega, with Freaky and Happy Death Day director Christopher Landon at the helm. But then Ortega allegedly asked for a substantial pay raise – and as we saw when Neve Campbell dropped out of Scream VI due to a pay dispute, these pay issues don’t tend to work out. Then Barrera was fired from the project after comments she made about the Israel-Hamas war didn’t go over well with executives at Spyglass. Landon dropped out the of the project soon after. So Scream 7 has been re-developed, Campbell has signed on to return as franchise heroine Sidney Prescott, back in the lead role, while Kevin Williamson, who wrote the screenplay for the original Scream, directs the film from a screenplay by 2022’s Scream and Scream VI writer Guy Busick, who crafted the story with his co-writer on the fifth and sixth films, James Vanderbilt. (Vanderbilt is also a producer on the most recent sequels.)
Neve Campbell is joined in the cast by Isabel May of the Yellowstone prequel 1883, who has signed on to play Sidney’s daughter; Mckenna Grace of the Ghostbusters franchise, Grace’s Ghostbusters co-star Celeste O’Connor, Gen V‘s Asa Germann, The Fabelmans‘ Sam Rechner, Pitch Perfect‘s Anna Camp, Riverdale‘s Mark Consuelos, fellow franchise star Courteney Cox, who reprises the role of reporter / author Gale Weathers, Joel McHale (Community) as Sidney’s husband Mark Evans, and Ethan Embray (The Devil’s Candy). Although two of the “core four” characters established in the previous two movies are no longer around, Mason Gooding and Jasmin Savoy Brown are back as Chad Meeks-Martin and Mindy Meeks-Martin.
As mentioned, Matthew Lillard, Scott Foley, and David Arquette are in there as well. During an interview with People, Lillard had this to say about reprising the role of Stu Macher in Scream 7: “I’m nervous, because at this point in my life, the only thing I can do is sort of ruin how people consider Stu. [Especially] if I come back and I suck or I was lame. I haven’t seen the movie yet. I don’t know if it works, but it’s a risk. And it’s a risk that I was excited to take. At the same time, I’m nervous to see the outcome. I hope people like it.“
That said, Lillard is confident that “the movie’s fantastic, and I’m really excited for people to see it. It’s not gonna ruin the franchise, that’s the good news.“
I’m not sure how the return of the dead characters will play out in the film, but the fan theory that Ghostface is using deepfake AI videos of them to torment victims seems like the best option to me. Whatever’s going on, I look forward to seeing it.
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