The Scream saga continues this weekend when Ghostface chases the crew to New York City, causing all sorts of chaos that worked extremely well for critics who screened the film in advance. Our own Corey Chichizola – a dedicated Scream fanatic – called Scream 6 a brutal game changer for the franchise, and in one specific way, he’s right. The story of the new Scream movies have shifted away from the O.G. characters of Dewey Riley (David Arquette), Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox), and Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) to focus on the team that Scream 6 refers to as “the core four.” And some of this is because Campbell refused to return for Scream 6 over a salary dispute.
But how might Scream 6 have used Sidney if in fact the stalwart of the series had worked things out with the studio and agreed to return? It was a question that we posed to Radio Silence, the filmmakers behind last year’s Scream and its new sequel. And while they couldn’t get into the studio politics of the decisions, filmmakers Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett confirmed that the news reached them very early in the process, to which Bettinelli-Olpin went on to explain:
We had, of course, talked about all the different ways that Sidney could be involved. For us, our job there was to just make the movie the best that we could make this movie. And, you know, we love Neve dearly, and we love Sidney. And hopefully there’s another Sidney movie down the road. Who knows? But like, when we were on set, it was just like, ‘This is what we are working with. How can we hopefully make this audience care about these characters as much as Wes (Craven) and Kevin (Williamson) made us care about Sidney and Gale and Dewey.' And really, that’s what we felt like our job was on this one.
Personally, I think they do an excellent job of making us care deeply about the “core four,” which is made up of Scream 6 cast members Jenna Ortega, Melissa Barrera, Jasmin Savoy Brown, and Mason Gooding. Even with the return of Cox and Scream 4 veteran Hayden Panettiere (once again playing Kirby), this new movie felt very much dedicated to, and in the hands of, the younger actors who will be responsible for carrying the Scream torch moving forward. And it’s time.
Listen to our full conversation with the Radio Silence guys on the latest episode of the ReelBlend podcast:
This is a competitive month at the box office. In addition to Scream 6, Sony has the Adam Driver dinosaur movie 65 in theaters today. Creed 3 is still expected to perform well, and then Shazam: Fury of the Gods and John Wick 4 are on the horizon. Someone should have pushed to April, where competition wasn’t nearly as stacked! Make sure to use our guide to Upcoming 2023 movies to keep track of what is coming, and when.
