Melissa Barrera says she would entertain the idea of joining a future installment of Scream, but only if someone new owns the rights.
Recently, Melissa Barrera gave a JustWatch interview in which she was asked whether she would return for another Scream movie. She said she wouldn’t come back “under the current rights owners”. That is Spyglass Media Group, which now holds the franchise rights.
“I love the franchise. I had an amazing time making those movies. But a lot of the hate and the difficulty that I’ve faced in the last years is because the leadership of that company made it a point to label me something that I’m not, and they never apologized, even when I was proven right,” Barrera said.
Not even an apology could change her mind.
“Even with an apology, I wouldn’t go back to work with them,” she said. “So, not that I’m holding my breath. I don’t think they have that ability. But if the franchise were ever to leave those hands and go into hands that I think honor Wes Craven’s legacy more, I think yeah.”
Melissa Barrera played Samantha Carpenter in 2022’s Scream and 2023’s Scream VI, two films that revived the series after Wes Craven’s death in 2015. Melissa was set to return as Sam in Scream 7, but she was fired in November 2023 after posting social media statements supporting Palestinians amid the Gaza war.
Spyglass Media Group said at the time that it had “zero tolerance for antisemitism or the incitement of hate in any form, including false references to genocide, ethnic cleansing, Holocaust distortion or anything that flagrantly crosses the line into hate speech.”
That situation led to major changes in Scream 7. Actress Jenna Ortega, Melissa’s sister in the film, left the franchise, saying that without Melissa, it was “kind of falling apart.” The director of the project, Christopher Landon, also quit after receiving “highly aggressive and really scary” death threats for his children. As for the final-girl, they decided to return Neve Campbell, who initially was supposed to skip Scream 6 because of salary problems.
Still, Scream 7 premiered in February and earned over $200M worldwide, making it the most successful film in the franchise. Notably, soon after, Paramount and Spyglass decided to make a sequel and assigned the scriptwriting to Suits’ screenwriters Lilla and Nora Zuckerman in March.
Some franchise veterans supported Melissa Barrera. For example, Matthew Lillard recently said that Melissa was right all along about the events with Scream 7 and that “I feel bad about that.”
Melissa Barrera also said she noticed Macklemore getting support after he spoke about Palestine, and that “I didn’t get that when it happened to me.”
