The Scream franchise has taken some twists and turns in the last several years, and it’s not all on-screen. Some of those twists involved real life, with both Neve Campbell and Melissa Barrera leaving and being fired, respectively, at different times for controversial reasons. Now, as Scream 7 looks to move on by going back to the past, with Campbell returning as Sidney Prescott, and Kevin Williamson coming back as both writer and director, January 30 brought two more shocks. Two former Ghostfaces are being resurrected as well, even though their characters were dead the last time we saw them. Both Matthew Lillard and Scott Foley are returning for Scream 7. It’s understandable why some see this as a desperate act (even if it was nearly attempted before), but if done right, it’s the best way to save a franchise in chaos.
Stu Macher and Roman Bridger Hid Under the Ghostface Mask
Scream is up to six films and still going strong thanks to the clever premise that keeps bringing fans to the theaters. If you watch a horror franchise like Halloween or Friday the 13th, you know who the killer is, but in Scream, Ghostfac’s identity changes in each movie. That makes for a fun whodunit we try to solve as we watch along. The first film still does it best with the brilliant ending where there are not one but two villains. Writer Kevin Williamson and director Wes Craven expertly put the killers right under our noses the entire time. One of the killers is Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich), a teen out for revenge after Sidney’s (Campbell) mom had an affair with his dad, causing his family to break up. His love of scary movies then takes his rage too far. His best friend, Stu Macher (Lillard), is an energetic and not-too-bright guy along for the ride, who kills for the thrill. In the end, Billy takes a bullet to the forehead and Sidney drops a TV on Stu’s head.
In Scream 2, we get two more Ghostface reveals, played by Timothy Olyphant and Laurie Metcalf, but in Scream 3, we get the only time when there is just one person behind the mask. In the last film of the original trilogy, the killer is revealed to be Roman Bridger (Foley), the director of Stab 3, and the long-lost half-brother of Sidney, a man consumed with hate because his mother rejected him, so he got Billy Loomis to kill her. The movie ends with Roman getting stabbed and shot dead.
Matthew Lillard Was Supposed To Return in ‘Scream 3’
Scream 3 was the least loved film of the trilogy because of how jumbled together it felt. Rather than being a focused story, it came across as everything being thrown at the wall to see what stuck, and it lacked the interesting characters and exciting plot of the first two movies. There’s a reason for that. It’s because the movie really was rushed, as a tragedy forced the franchise to go in a different direction.
Scream 3 was written by Ehren Kruger, but it was originally penned by Kevin Williamson, the same man who wrote the first two films. His script was wildly different from what we got. In it, a group of high schoolers, who were like a cult of Ghostface, would be responsible for the murders, with the shocking ending revealing that Stu was still alive and controlling them. That would have made for a fun movie, but in April 1999, two teenagers went on a shooting spree at Columbine High School. Naturally, the idea of killer teens was too much for current audiences, and the idea was dropped.
‘Scream 7’ Can’t Repeat the Same Franchise Beats
The last three Scream films were good, but the endings have become predictable, with vengeful teens obsessed with horror movies. It’s more obvious who the killers are, and their motives have lost the impact the films once had. Scream 7 can’t do the same old thing where Sidney Prescott is hunted down by some kids who love slashers. It needs to shake things up.
Bringing back Matthew Lillard and Scott Foley is as big of a shake-up as you can get. Now the question is what their role will be. They could return to simply be ghosts in Sidney’s imagination, similar to how Sam Carpenter (Barrera) was seeing the ghost of her father, Billy Loomis, in Scream 5. However, seeing the franchise go into supernatural territory didn’t feel right. They could also be a hallucination of Sidney’s crumbling mind, as we explore her trauma, but why would we get announcements of cameos? Skeet Ulrich’s return was kept as a surprise for viewers to be shocked by in the theaters.
Scream 7 likes to hold up a mirror to current movie trends. Halloween just had a popular trilogy where Jamie Lee Curtis returned as Laurie Strode, even though she’d been killed off twice. How much more meta can you get to then bring Stu and Roman back, either as the killers, or the leaders controlling a cult of them? Seeing Stu Macher in particular would be wild, and the perfect next chapter for Matthew Lillard, who has had a career resurgence that could bring in younger viewers thanks to his villainous role in Five Nights at Freddy’s. As he screams at the end of that movie, “I always come back!” That’s never been more true.
Scream 7
- Release Date
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February 27, 2026
- Director
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Kevin Williamson
- Writers
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Kevin Williamson, Guy Busick, James Vanderbilt
- Producers
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Cathy Konrad, Gary Barber, Marianne Maddalena, Peter Oillataguerre, William Sherak, Chad Villella, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, Ron Lynch
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Courteney Cox
Gale Weathers
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Mason Gooding
Chad Meeks-Martin
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Jasmin Savoy Brown
Mindy Meeks-Martin
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