The Scream franchise has been offering fans smart scares since 1996, offering sequels in 1997, 2000, and the fourth coming in 2011. The franchise has topped $600 million in the worldwide box office, making it one of the more financially successful horror franchises. With Scream 4 looking to be the start of the modern trilogy, 5cream, or as we’ll call Scream 5 for the sake of readability, is aiming to be released in 2022 and it’s bringing back stars Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, and David Arquette along with other characters and welcoming in some newer names to the franchise.
First to sign back on was Arquette, who plays deputy-turned-sheriff Dwight “Dewey” Riley. In a statement, Arquette greeted horror fans again by saying that,
“I am thrilled to be playing Dewey again and to reunite with my Scream family, old and new. Scream has been such a big part of my life, and for both the fans and myself, I look forward to honoring Wes Craven’s legacy.”
David Arquette
Next came Cox, who plays ruthless reporter and writer who is married to Dewey, Gale Weathers. On July 31, Cox posted a video on her Instagram account of the Ghostface killer mask with no audio and just a caption reading “I can’t wait to see this face again”.
Next came fans guessing at what her hairstyle would be in the upcoming movie, having worn chunky streaks in Scream 2 and the infamous bangs in Scream 3.
The Return of the Franchise Final Girl Neve Campbell
Last of the trio to confirm their return was Campbell, who stars as the Final Girl, Sidney Prescott. On September 10, 2020, Campbell posted a short video of the Ghostface mask on her Instagram page with the hashtag “ImBack”.
View this post on Instagram
During an interview with The Talk, Campbell expressed her apprehension to returning to the franchise after the passing of Wes Craven, who had directed the first four films, but her excitement overpowered any apprehensions she had.
“I’m excited to get back to it. I’m excited to see Courteney and David. I’m excited to see this young new cast. I’m excited to work with these new directors. I had been apprehensive because, you know, our director, our incredible director Wes Craven passed away, and I wasn’t sure about doing a film without him. But the new directors came to me with this beautiful letter saying that they’ve become directors and love film because of these films, and because of Wes, and they really want to be true to his story and his journey with these films, so I was really happy to hear that.”
Neve Campbell on The Talk
Scream 5 will be the first in the franchise to not be directed by Craven, who passed away back in 2015 from a brain tumor. Craven’s final film that he directed was Scream 4. Taking over with directing is the team known as Radio Silence, consisting of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett.
Fresh Faces Heading To Woodsboro
Coming in some horror experience is actor Kyle Gallner (Jennifer’s Body), who reassured any wary fans of the upcoming sequel after reading the script with, “What I found really, really cool about the script is there’s a lot of that kind of magic that the first one had, which is really cool. I think the people who love the original are gonna really dig this.”
Along with Gallner, Scream 5 is bringing on Jack Quaid (The Boys), Jenna Ortega (The Babysitter: Killer Queen), Dylan Minnette (13 Reasons Why), Mikey Madison (Once Upon A Time…In Hollywood), Mason Gooding (Love, Victor), and Melissa Barrera.
Modern horror Scream Queen Samara Weaving (The Babysitter, The Babysitter: Killer Queen) was in talks to appear in Scream 5, having worked with the directors previously on their 2019 horror thriller Ready Or Not but unfortunate scheduling conflicts would not allow it.
Social Media Posts by the Actors Hint At More Possible Returns
Actress Marley Shelton, who made her entrance in the series in Scream 4 as Deputy Judy Hicks, posted a photo on her Instagram page celebrating her returning for Scream 5 and tagged as many fellow cast members as she could, including Skeet Ulrich, in the post. Ulrich played Sidney’s boyfriend/one of the original killers Billy Loomis in Scream who met his demise at the hands of his girlfriend. Announcing his departure from the CW show Riverdale leaves us to wonder if he was making time to appear in a certain movie?
After finishing a day of filming, Barrera posted a video on her Instagram of a sunset on a beach and she tagged actress Heather Matarazzo in the video. Matarazzo had briefly appeared in Scream 3 as Martha Meeks, the sister of late-Randy Meeks, played by Jamie Kennedy.
Even Matthew Lillard said in a tweet he’d come back and offers an argument that his character, Stu, could have potentially survived his death at the end of the first Scream.
I mean… it was just a TV? Right? You’d think he’d SURVIVE? #stu
— matthew lillard —Will block. 0-F’s-given (@MatthewLillard) September 11, 2020
While her character was only in the first movie for about ten minutes, Scream’s opening scene with Drew Barrymore has gone down as one of the most shocking scenes in movie history. Fresh with her new talk show, The Drew Barrymore Show, Barrymore talked with Entertainment Tonight’s Kevin Frazier who surprised her with a video shout-out from Campbell, reminiscing about the memories that they share from being in the original hit movie. While sharing the love, Frazier brought up the idea of Barrymore’s potential return, even in just a flashback, because Barrymore’s character of Casey would need, in Barrymore’s words, “a lot of ACE bandages” to return.
While none of these hints are 100% confirmations, it’s fun for hardcore fans of the series to think about all of these possible character ties making their returns to the franchise.
Positive Covid-19 Cases Barely Stall Production
Principal photography for the film was being shot in WIlmington, NC. In September 2020, three crew members on the set tested positive for covid-19 and were promptly quarantined. Said three crew members were not part of the bigger crew, which contained the principal actors and crew, so the filming schedule was not affected. Moving forward, the crew did vigorous “contact tracing” to make sure no one else might have been exposed to the virus and they will continue to follow more safety protocols.
At the time I’m typing this, Scream 5 is set to be released on January 14, 2022.
