If you haven’t gotten around to watching the 2022 Scream sequel (the one simply called Scream) but still want to avoid SPOILERS, you should turn away. Do not continue reading! But if you have already seen the movie or haven’t been avoiding spoilers, you probably know by now that Mikey Madison of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and this year’s critically acclaimed Anora was not only one of the film’s Ghostface-mask-wearing killers, but her character was even responsible for killing off the fan favorite character of Dewey Riley, played by David Arquette. Dewey survived (sometimes barely) four full Scream movies, but when he crossed paths with Mikey Madison in the fifth film, that was it for him. And in an interview with Collider, Madison has apologized for her character’s actions.
Born in 1999, Madison didn’t even exist yet when the first two Scream movies were released (in 1996 and ’97), and she explained to Collider that she didn’t realize just how popular the franchise was until after she had worked on the 2022 sequel. She said, “I have to be honest, when I did the film, it sounds naive, but I wasn’t so aware of the huge fan base that the franchise has, that I’ve now been able to discover. Scream and horror fans and people who love horror films are the best people ever, but I really naively went into it. And so I remember being kind of sad (about Dewey being killed) because I was like, ‘Oh, such a great character. It’ll be sad to see him go.’ And then I realized afterward the heartbreak that so many people felt. People have come up to me, and they’re like, ‘I hate that this happened. I’m mad at you.’ And I’m like, ‘I’m so sorry, I didn’t write the script!’ I didn’t want to do it.“
The 2022 Scream was a “legacy-quel” or “requel” from Ready or Not directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. The screenplay was written by James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick. Vanderbilt also produced the film for Project X Entertainment, alongside Paul Neinstein and William Sherak. Chad Villella, Gary Barber, Peter Oillataguerre, Ron Lynch, Cathy Konrad, and Marianne Maddalena served as executive producers alongside original Scream writer Kevin Williamson. The film has the following synopsis: Twenty-five years after a streak of brutal murders shocked the quiet town of Woodsboro, a new killer has donned the Ghostface mask and begins targeting a group of teenagers to resurrect secrets from the town’s deadly past.
Madison and Arquette were joined in the cast by Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Marley Shelton, Melissa Barrera, Jenna Ortega, Jack Quaid, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Dylan Minnette, Mason Gooding, Kyle Gallner, and Sonia Ammar.
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