- Jenna Ortega will not return for Scream VII due to her commitment to filming Wednesday’s second season.
- Melissa Barrera was fired from Scream VII after controversial social media posts about the Israel-Hamas conflict.
- The future of the Scream franchise is uncertain with Barrera’s firing and Ortega’s departure, but it has earned $911 million so far.
Jenna Ortega, the star of Scream and Scream VI, will not be joining the cast for the seventh movie in the franchise. Instead, she will focus on filming the second season of the TV series Wednesday, which starts production in 2024.
Ortega’s announcement comes less than a day after Melissa Barrera’s firing from Scream VII due to her social media posts related to the Israel-Hamas conflict. Deadline reports that Ortega’s decision not to return for the sequel was discussed before the SAG-AFTRA strike and is not a direct result of Barrera’s dismissal.
Production company Spyglass made a statement regarding Barrera’s firing, citing zero tolerance for antisemitism or hate speech.
As both Barrera and Ortega will not be part of Scream VII and with original star Neve Campbell not returning, the Scream franchise’s future might be at risk. The script for the seventh movie is not yet prepared, and the recent controversies might affect its development. Nevertheless, with the franchise earning $911 million from its six films, it seems unlikely that Spyglass and Paramount would abandon it entirely.
In response to Barrera’s dismissal, Scream VII’s director, Christopher Landon, posted and subsequently deleted a message on X (formerly Twitter), which read, “This is my statement: Everything sucks. Stop yelling. This was not my decision to make.”
Despite the controversies, the Scream franchise continues to be a success, with its most recent film, Scream VI, moving Ghostface’s killings from Woodsboro to New York City, targeting survivors of the ‘Woodsboro legacy murders.’