Spyglass Media and Paramount 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.) If the original plan had stayed on track, Skeet Ulrich was expected to be in the film – but after the creative shake-up, Ulrich has confirmed that he is not in Scream 7.
Billy Loomis
Skeet Ulrich played Billy Loomis in the original Scream, a character who was revealed to be one of the Ghostface killers. Billy didn’t survive that film – but the character Melissa Barrera played in the last two movies was his daughter, and she kept seeing hallucinations of him, allowing Ulrich to reprise his role decades later. The hallucinations would have continued in Scream 7 if Barrera returned… but it wasn’t to be.
Speaking with the New York Post, Ulrich said, “I’m not involved. I’m really excited though. I’m excited for Kevin Williamson to take the helm and to see what the mastermind of it all comes up with. I used to know [what the movie was about], because part of coming back for five and six was being a part of seven. It was a three-picture arc for Billy Loomis, or the imagination of Billy Loomis in Melissa Barrera’s character’s head. But when all that went down with her, obviously you lose her and you lose what’s in her head. I used to know what the seventh was going to be and it was really, really interesting. Now I have no clue.“
Scream 7 cast
Neve Campbell is joined in the cast by Isabel May of the Yellowstone prequel 1883, who plays Sidney’s daughter Tatum; 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.
Also in the cast are 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. David Arquette is back as the dearly departed Dewey, who exited the world of the living in the fifth movie.
Although Ulrich and Lillard were both killers in the original Scream (and both appear in the newly released Five Nights at Freddy’s 2), Ulrich has not been told what his fellow Ghostface is doing in Scream 7. “I don’t know how [Matthew Lillard’s] back. I have no idea, which I’m kind of excited for, to see it and not know.“
Scream 7 is set to reach theatres on February 27, 2026. Are you looking forward to the film, and are you disappointed to hear that Skeet Ulrich won’t appear in it? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
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