Joel McHale played Mark Evans in Scream 7, Sidney’s (Neve Campbell) husband, but the character was clearly meant to be Mark Kincaid, Patrick Dempsey’s character in Scream 3. It seems the production really wanted Dempsey back, as McHale recently revealed he only got the call after the sequel was already filming, and he arrived to find Dempsey’s name on his chair. A very last-minute switch.
“Patrick Dempsey played the husband in [Scream 3], and he was supposed to play this one,” McHale said on Inside of You With Michael Rosenbaum. “And I don’t know how it went down. I don’t know if it was schedule or money. Patrick, please forgive me if I’m f—ing this up. But I get there, and his nameplate is on my chair. I tried to keep it, they wouldn’t let me.“
In the fifth Scream, Sidney mentions her husband Mark, which naturally had fans assuming she eventually married Mark from Scream 3. Dempsey was once in talks to return. “I’m waiting on the script,” Dempsey said in 2024. “There has been a conversation about it. I haven’t seen anything, so we’ll see what happens.” As we know now, it didn’t happen.
“They were already shooting, and I was thrilled,” McHale added. “I couldn’t believe I was there. I would have paid for this…. They offered it, and they needed me there the next day.“
Our own Tyler Nichols, and Scream franchise mega-fan, sadly didn’t enjoy the sequel. “Most of the new characters are simple set dressing or fodder for kills,” he wrote. “I get that this is a slasher but no one even feels dimensional and they hardly get any characterization. With the worst final act in Scream history, I feel like it’s definitely time to put this franchise to bed.” You can check out the rest of his review right here.
However, our own Mike Conway found much more to enjoy, although he admitted that the film won’t be for everyone. “The critics are already sharpening their knives, and some fans can’t see past the production hurdles,” he wrote in his review. “But if you can separate the art from the industry mess, you’ll find a lean, mean slasher that definitively answers the existential question of what this series is. At its heart, Scream is Neve Campbell’s franchise.“
As you might expect, another sequel is in the works. Spyglass has tapped Lilla and Nora Zuckerman, the showrunners of Poker Face, to serve as the writers of Scream 8.