Fresh off the news that Scream 3 star Scott Foley has joined the cast of Scream 7, Deadline has reported the massive news that Matthew Lillard is also returning to the franchise.
Lillard has made no secret of the fact in recent years that he believes Stu Macher is still alive, and that he’d love to make his return to the Scream franchise. At this time we can’t tell if Lillard is playing Stu in Scream 7 or the film is taking a unique approach to bringing back past actors from the saga, but a post from Lillard on Instagram tonight suggests Stu is very much alive.
Check out Lillard’s post below and start your speculating.
Matthew Lillard’s Stu Macher was of course one of the original Ghostface killers in Wes Craven’s Scream, his character long believed to be dead after being stabbed multiple times and getting a television set dropped on his head. Similarly, Scott Foley’s Scream 3 character Roman Bridger was presumably killed off in that movie, so it’s hard to tell what’s going on here.
Are actors including Lillard and Foley playing themselves in Scream 7, with the film taking a New Nightmare approach to the Scream franchise? Are they playing brand new characters, or indeed reprising their roles from the franchise’s past? The Ghosts of Ghostface Past?
Your guess is as good as ours…
The seventh installment is set to release in theaters on February 27, 2026.
Neve Campbell is back next year as Sidney Prescott alongside Courteney Cox as Gale Weathers, with Mason Gooding and Jasmin Savoy Brown also set to return.
Franchise newcomers this time around include Celeste O’Connor (Ghostbusters: Afterlife), Mckenna Grace (Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire), Sam Rechner (The Fabelmans), Asa Germann (“The Boys”), Anna Camp (“Hysteria!), Isabel May (“1883”), Mark Consuelos, and Joel McHale (It’s a Wonderful Knife) as Sidney’s husband, Mark Evans.
Original Scream writer Kevin Williamson is directing Scream 7.