Scream 7 started filming at the start of January, aiming for a February 27, 2026 release date, with Kevin Williamson, who wrote the screenplay for the original Scream, directing 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.) Now, Busick has revealed that Scream 7 picks up “at least two years” after the events of Scream VI.
Spyglass 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 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.
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, fellow franchise star Courteney Cox, who reprises the role of reporter / author Gale Weathers, Joel McHale (Community) as Sidney’s husband Mark Evans, Ethan Embry (The Devil’s Candy), Michelle Randolph (Landman), Jimmy Tatro (American Vandal), and Mark Consuelos (Riverdale). Mason Gooding and Jasmin Savoy Brown are back as Chad Meeks-Martin and Mindy Meeks-Martin from Scream (2022) and Scream VI. There are multiple deceased characters in the cast as well: Matthew Lillard and Scott Foley, who played Ghostface killers who were killed off in Scream (1996) and Scream 3, respectively, and David Arquette, whose beloved character Dewey lost his life in Scream (2022), are all in there.
Busick didn’t address the living dead cast members, but he did tell ComicBook.com, “We always wanted to do a Sidney movie and so it was like, ‘All right, let’s get into it and why now and why this one?’ I don’t want to give anything away about the reason [Scream 7] had to be a Sidney movie because there’s a really cool reason. In all these movies, you have to ask, ‘Why now? What is the thing Scream is commenting on now?’ Scream is always in a conversation with the audience about the state of movies, the state of horror movies and in particular, franchises. … I will say there is a reason and we were happy with it when we cracked it. We went to Neve Campbell and said, ‘This is why. This is why Sidney now.’ Neve was like, ‘Oh, I get that.’ I pitched Kevin [Williamson] this first, too. He got it and then I pitched the studio. I came up with the story with my co-writer on 5 and 6, James Vanderbilt.“
Busick did admit that he and Vanderbilt had been hoping to make another “Core Four” movie (starring Barrera, Ortega, Gooding, and Brown) before getting around to their Sidney movie, but it wasn’t to be. “We weren’t able to use what we had in the previous iteration for this one. [We] just had to start from scratch, which was a bummer. We were excited about what we had for that movie. We wanted to do one more ‘Core Four’ movie. We know the fans love those characters. We love those characters. We created those characters. I would love to see, in some universe, the continuation of their characters, in some way. But we weren’t able to port over the stuff from the other story. It was like, ‘Okay, here is what the universe dealt us.’” It was Vanderbilt who found a way to bring in Gooding and Brown’s characters, despite the absence of Barrera and Ortega. “I want to give credit where credit is due, but it was an organic way why they would be in this movie. I don’t want to spoil anything, but I will say it’s through Gale. She’s the connective tissue in 5 and 6 and she’s in this. New York was obviously a big part of that. She bonded with those four and there’s a reason why these two come to this town where the action is happening.“
As for the setting, “It’s not New York. I don’t want to be the one to spoil where it is. It’s an unspecified amount of time [after VI]. I might get contradicted by other people, but in my mind, more than two years. I would say at least two years. It could be two years, but I would say two years plus.“
Are you looking forward to Scream 7? What do you think of the story picking up two years after Scream VI? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
