Thirty years ago director Wes Craven debuted his latest feature, Scream, a meta-infused send-up of the slasher genre that followed heroine Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and her attempts to survive the masked killer known as Ghostface. The film received positive reviews, with critics praising its self-referential humor wrapped up in a familiar narrative structure.
Almost immediately a sequel, Scream 2, was greenlit and released in 1997. Craven directed the first four films before his passing in 2015, with Scream 4, released in 2011, dividing audiences. In 2015, MTV released a Scream TV series. The serialized anthology show suffered from being unable to reference the feature films or utilize the Ghostface mask and costuming, but still went on for three seasons, ending in 2019.
With Craven’s passing, it was presumed the franchise would end with Scream 4, until directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett were hired to helm Scream, released in 2022, which featured two new characters — sisters Tara and Sam Carpenter (Jenna Ortega and Melissa Barrera, respectively) — having to do battle with Ghostface. Campbell returned to the franchise, as well as Courteney Cox and David Arquette. Here’s everything we know about the new film!
Scream 7 marks the return of Campbell’s Sidney Prescott after the actress refused to star in Scream VI due to a payment dispute. She leads the cast alongside other legacy Scream alum including Cox, Arquette (who also didn’t appear in Scream 6) and Matthew Lillard, who played one of the original killers, Stu Macher, in the first Scream. Previous Ghostface Scott Foley, who was Roman Bridger in Scream 3, will also return, though it’s unclear how the new movie will utilize these already deceased characters. Longtime Ghostface voice actor Roger L. Jackson will also continue to give the character his distinct “Hello, Sidney” in this installment.
Newcomers to the series include Isabel May, playing Sidney Prescott’s daughter Tatum, as well as Joel McHale as Sidney’s husband. It was hoped that Patrick Dempsey, who played Detective Mark Kincaid in Scream 3 and was set up as a love interest for Sidney, would return. Unfortunately, scheduling conflicts and the California wildfires prohibited him from appearing. Other announced cast include Anna Camp, McKenna Grace, Michelle Randolph, Jimmy Tatro, Asa Germann, Celeste O’Connor, Sam Rechner, Ethan Embry, Tim Simons, and Mark Consuelos.
Jasmin Savoy-Brown and Mason Gooding will also return as the Meeks twins. They debuted in the 2022 Scream reboot and were also in Scream 6. Neither Melissa Barrera nor Jenna Ortega, the stars of the previous two features, will return for Scream 7, despite plans for them to continue their storyline from the last film. Barrera was fired from the franchise in November of 2023 in the wake of statements she made on social media regarding the war in Gaza.
At the time, Spyglass, the company that puts out the Scream franchise, said, “Spyglass’ stance is unequivocally clear: We have zero tolerance for antisemitism or the incitement of hate in any form, including false references to genocide, ethnic cleansing, Holocaust distortion or anything that flagrantly crosses the line into hate speech.”
The following day, Ortega announced her exit from the franchise as well. Conflicts with the shooting schedule for her Netflix series Wednesday were used as her reason for leaving, though in a 2025 article Ortega said that wasn’t the case, “The Melissa stuff was happening, and it was all kind of falling apart. If Scream 7 wasn’t going to be with that team of directors and those people I fell in love with, then it didn’t seem like the right move for me in my career at the time.” Barrera’s exit also meant Skeet Ulrich, who played original killer Billy Loomis and was part of the new franchise as Sam’s dad, would also not return despite plans to bring him back for Scream 7.
Original Scream creator and screenwriter Kevin Williamson will take on directing duties, replacing director Christopher Landon (Happy Death Day, Drop) who exited the project in 2023 after the film decided to retool the plot in the wake of Barrera and Ortega’s exit. Landon said that losing Barrera meant he wasn’t able to work on the narrative he wanted to tell.
Sidney Prescott has left Woodsboro for good and resettled in Pine Grove, Indiana. But Ghostface refuses to let her rest and sets his sights on her teenage daughter Tatum (May). Sidney is forced to confront her past yet again in order to save her child.
Paramount dropped the first trailer for the new installment three months ago, laying out the basic tenets of the plot, introducing audiences to Tatum, Sidney’s daughter. Since then a brief teaser has dropped looking at the various legacy characters in the franchise. A promo trailer also dropped during the Super Bowl.
Scream 7 will be in theaters on February 27.
