Neve Campbell back for ‘Scream 7’: ‘I couldn’t be more thrilled’

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After opting not to return to Scream 6 following a salary dispute, franchise star Neve Campbell has announced she’ll return to the series in its upcoming seventh instalment.

“Sidney Prescott is coming back!!!!” Campbell posted on Instagram Tuesday. “It’s always been such a blast and an honor to get to play Sidney in the Scream movies. My appreciation for these films and for what they have meant to me, has never waned. I’m very happy and proud to say I’ve been asked, in the most respectful way, to bring Sidney back to the screen and I couldn’t be more thrilled!!!”

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Scream creator and writer Kevin Williamson will take over as director on Scream 7, replacing Radio Silence, who directed and produced the previous two Scream films, which Campbell said was a dream come true.

“This was his baby and it’s his brilliant mind that dreamt up this world,” Campbell wrote. “Kevin is not just an inspiration as an artist but has been a dear friend for many years. To the amazing Scream fans, I hope you are as excited as I am.”

After starring in five films in the series, Campbell announced in 2022 that she would not return for the sixth entry saying in a statement at the time, “I felt the offer that was presented to me did not equate to the value I have brought to the franchise.”

“As a woman in this business, I think it’s really important for us to be valued and to fight to be valued. I honestly don’t believe that if I were a man and had done five installments of a huge blockbuster franchise over 25 years, that the number that I was offered would be the number that would be offered to a man,” she added in a followup interview with People.

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Campbell’s return comes after news that Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega, who starred in the most recent Scream films, will not return for the seventh movie.

Barrera was fired over controversial posts she made amid the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, while Ortega stepped away due to her upcoming shooting schedule on Netflix’s Wednesday.

The original Scream opened in 1996 and cast Campbell as a high-schooler who was being targeted by a horror-movie obsessed killer nicknamed Ghostface. The film’s success at the box office led to four more instalments, also starring Campbell, Courteney Cox and David Arquette.

Last year’s Scream 6 followed the Carpenter sisters, Sam and Tara (Barrera and Ortega), to New York City where they found themselves targeted by a new group of killers donning the Ghostface mask.

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In a 2022 interview with Postmedia, Campbell said she wasn’t surprised by the franchise’s enduring appeal more than a quarter of a century after its release.

“People really loved the first one, and when you really love a movie, it’s fun to revisit the characters and it’s fun to see something familiar. Especially when it’s done well each time, which I think we’ve managed to do a good job of. That’s rare in franchises. I think people have their favourites, but there’s something about each one of these films I think people really love,” Campbell said. “There aren’t that many franchises, really … everything just came together on that one and we were very lucky.”

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