Although the late and great horror master that was Wes Craven passed away in 2015, directing his final movie, Scream 4, in 2011, the Scream franchise is still going strong and is arguably better than ever. This is largely thanks to the work of directors Matt Bettinelli and Tyler Gillett and writers James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick, who, in Scream (2022) and Scream VI (2023), found a way to revitalize the franchise without having to do a hard reboot while still making the material feel fresh for a whole new generation of horror fans. This approach has returned the franchise to the critical and commercial successes of its earliest days, and as such the studio is currently producing the latest instalment in the franchise, which, of course, is called Scream 7.
As 2022’s Scream – which doubled down on the franchise’s satirical meta approach to the horror genre – introduced an all-new cast of young characters as fodder for Ghostface, it was the first film in the franchise not to feature the likes of Canada’s Neve Campbell, David Arquette and Courtney Cox in leading roles, though they still each played a prominent part in the narrative, instead aiding the new leading sisterly duo of Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega. For Scream VI, then, Berrera and Ortega returned with their friends played by the likes of Jasmin Savoy Brown and Mason Gooding once again, while Cox was the only returning original cast member, making her the only performer to have appeared in every entry of the franchise to that point.
This is a record Cox will be maintaining too, as she will once again return for Scream 7, which is currently being shot in Atlanta, Georgia, alongside Neve Campbell, who will serve again as the lead character for the first time since Scream 4, and they will be joined by a solid cast of newcomers that includes Community’s Joel McHale, Ghostbusters alums Celeste O’Connor and Mckenna Grace, Gen V’s Asa Germann, and former True Blood cast member Anna Camp. Bettinelli and Gillett are not returning for directorial duties, which will instead be handled by the franchise creator, Kevin Williamson, who wrote the first two entries and has also served as a producer on the franchise.
While Jasmin Savoy Brown and Mason Gooding will return as members of the new generation of cast members, each marking their third appearance in the franchise, Barrera and Ortega will not be returning for different reasons. Barrera was unceremoniously fired from the franchise for leveling justifiable criticism at the Israeli government for the brutal military campaign they have waged on the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian people. Ortega, meanwhile, was forced to drop out due to scheduling conflicts.
Nothing is known of Scream 7’s story as of yet, but nonetheless, by far the most intriguing of the production’s announcements is the return of Matthew Lillard and Scott Foley, each of whom played the masked killers Stu Macher in Scream and Roman Bridger in Scream 3, respectively. The franchise is certainly not afraid to bring back seemingly dead characters from movies, such as Hayden Panettiere’s Kirby Reed and even Mason Gooding’s Chad Meeks-Martin, but the villains Stu and Roman each met definitive demises.
Instead, they will likely approach their unexpected returns similar to that of Skeet Ulrich’s Billy Loomis, who appeared in 2022’s Scream and Scream VI as a mental projection in the mind of Barrera’s Sam Carpenter, who, as it turns out, is his biological daughter. Thus, the two former killers in the franchise could appear in a similar fashion to Loomis, but this time perhaps through the psyche of Campbell’s Sidney Prescott, but this remains to be seen, at least until the first trailer is released, but even then, I’m sure those behind the movie wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise.
Scream 7 is currently slated for release on February 26th, 2026.