“Hello, Sidney.”
Original “Scream” queen Neve Campbell announced she is returning to the multi-film franchise after sitting out of the sixth installment over a salary dispute.
The 50-year-old actor took to Instagram on Tuesday to confirm the news with a photo of the script.
"Sidney Prescott is coming back!!!!" Campbell wrote. "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."
Campbell has played the key character of Sidney Prescott in each of the franchise’s films, excluding “Scream VI,” since the first movie was released in 1996.
"As a woman, I have had to work extremely hard in my career to establish my value, especially when it comes to 'Scream,'" she said in a 2022 statement to Variety on her decision not to join the sixth movie. "I felt the offer that was presented to me did not equate to the value I have brought to the franchise."
It was also revealed that the writer of the original “Scream” movie, Kevin Williamson, will return to direct the untitled seventh installment.
“I am overcome with gratitude and excitement, and I can’t wait to take this journey with Neve and the entire Scream family as we bring back Sidney Prescott in the next chapter of the Scream franchise,” Williamson wrote on his own Instagram. “Thank you to all the Scream fans. You are the gift that keeps giving.”
In addition to writing the scripts for the franchise’s debut, sequel and “Scream 4,” Williamson is known for his work on other slasher films like “I Know What You Did Last Summer” as well as popular shows like “Dawson’s Creek” and “Vampire Diaries.”
A release date for “Scream 7” and the full cast have not yet been announced, but there are some faces that will be notably missing from the upcoming film. Actor Melissa Barrera, who starred alongside Jenna Ortega in lead roles for the fifth and sixth “Scream” movies, was fired by the production company following social media posts in which she was critical of Israel and supportive of Palestinians amid the Israel-Hamas war.
A spokesperson for production company Spyglass Media Group told Variety it has "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."
Following her firing, Christopher Landon announced he, too, was leaving the project that he was originally slated to direct. In a post on X, he described the gig as a "dream job that turned into a nightmare."
Ortega is also not returning for "Scream 7,” though reports stated it was due to a scheduling conflict and unrelated to her co-star’s dismissal.
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