The next Scream sequel is among upcoming horror movies set to come out in 2026, but before the film came together with a long list of new and legacy stars led by Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott, a lot of drama happened behind the scenes. Scream 7’s director Kevin Williamson has spoken about how the project came together for him, and it feels right that the Scream Queen herself had a lot to do with helping put the pieces of the project back together.
If you haven’t been following the saga of Scream 7, back in late 2023, Melissa Barrera was fired from the original iteration of the movie after she made pro-Palestinian comments on social media that were deemed antisemitic by the movie’s production company. Not long after, Jenna Ortega left with her because “it was all kind of falling apart,” and after original director Christopher Landon left after receiving serious “threats” (even though he was not involved in her firing), Scream 7 was back to square one. Williamson apparently didn’t want to take over until one key person changed his mind. In his words:
Neve did. You are right. It was sort of, ‘Well, what’s going to happen?’ After we lost Melissa and Jenna, and it just looked like we weren’t going to see the Carpenter sisters in a third movie, it was kind of a bummer. It’s like, ‘What do we do next?’
In an interview with ScreenRant, Kevin Williamson (who penned the script for the original 1996 movie) shared that once the Carpenter sisters were no longer involved, he was just as disappointed about their exit as us. But then a new idea started to take shape. He continued,
And then this idea to bring Sidney Prescott back — and not just bring her back, but to focus on her character, tell her story of who she is today — that got really exciting for me. And I think other people got really excited about it.
The upcoming Scream movie was written by James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick, who helped bring back the franchise from the dead with 2022’s Scream and the 2023 follow-up Scream VI. Once the writers started to come up with the mysterious idea that would heavily involve Sidney Prescott, the film started to come together again. Williamson also said this:
And then they started writing a script. Jamie came up with this great story — Jamie Vanderbilt and Guy Busick — and they started to write this script, and it just sort of took on a life of its own. And then Neve read it and heard the pitch, and she signed on. And I was still just the executive producer who was just sort of there, watching from the sidelines… And then Neve called me one day and said, ‘I think you should direct this.’ And I went, ‘No, no, no, no, no… okay, I’ll do it.’
It’s kind of perfect that Neve Campbell was the one to ask Williamson, right? I mean if Sidney Prescott asks you to make a Scream sequel with her, how do you say no? While we have no idea what this “great” story is, Busick has remarked that she’s in the movie this time for a “really cool reason.”
Plus, the upcoming film is set to somehow bring back to life Matthew Lillard’s Stu, Scott Foley’s Roman Bridger and David Arquette’s Dewey, so you just know it’s going to be good. Other cast members include Courteney Cox, Mason Gooding, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Anna Camp, McKenna Grace and Joel McHale, and it’s coming out February 27, 2026.