Skeet Ulrich played one of the killers, Billy Loomis, in the 1996 classic Scream – and things didn’t go well for Billy at the end of that film. When the fifth film in the franchise, which was also simply titled Scream, came around in 2022, fans were surprised to learn that not only would one of the lead characters (Melissa Barrera as Samantha Carpenter) be the never-before-mentioned daughter of Billy Loomis, but she would also be seeing visions of her father throughout, allowing Ulrich, with the help of some digital de-aging, to reprise his role twenty-six years later. Samantha was again a major character in Scream VI, and Ulrich again got to make appearances as Billy. Melissa Barrera was on board to come back for Scream 7… until she was fired from the project after comments she made about the Israel-Hamas war didn’t go over well with executives at Spyglass Media. Speaking with Screen Rant, Ulrich confirmed that he had been expecting the Billy / Samantha story to continue in Scream 7, as he had been pitched a three-movie arc when he was approached about the 2022 Scream.
When asked if the “killer instinct” Samantha inherited from her father would have been featured in Scream 7, Ulrich said, “Exactly that. I was hoping for exactly that, and that’s sort of the idea that was pitched to me a couple years ago. That it was a three-movie arc, with that in mind. Now, I never saw any of the drafts of seven or anything that… And I don’t know, I mean, it’s possible that it didn’t include any of that as well. But yeah, that was my hope is that if it was going to mean anything, that it directly impacted the plot.“
We assume that any chance of Ulrich appearing in Scream 7 was swept off the table when Barrera / Samantha were removed from the project. Also absent from the next sequel will be Jenna Ortega, who played Samantha’s sister Tara, as Ortega allegedly wanted a substantial pay raise the executives weren’t willing to give her.
Spyglass Media and Paramount Pictures are still eager to get a Scream 7 out into the world, though. Returning writers James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick working on the script, and last we heard they were hoping to get Neve Campbell back in the lead as franchise heroine Sidney Prescott. (Campbell missed out on Scream VI due to a pay dispute of her own.) Patrick Dempsey, who played LAPD homicide detective – and Sidney’s love interest – Mark Kincaid in Scream 3, might also be part of the new plan for the seventh film.
Scream (2022) and Scream VI directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett will not be at the helm of the new film. Freaky and Happy Death Day director Christopher Landon had been hired to direct it, but he left when the original version of the film crumbled out from under him. Alone and Sick director John Hyams may be in the running to direct Scream 7 now, along with an unspecified female director.
Are you interested in Scream 7? Are you disappointed that the three-movie arc that had been pitched to Skeet Ulrich didn’t work out? Let us know by leaving a comment below.