With six months to go until on of the bloodiest 2026 release dates arrives, and there’s still much about the upcoming horror movies Scream 7 that we still don’t know, outside of the core cast and a smattering of returning former actors like Matthew Lillard and Scott Foley’s Roman Bridger from Scream 3. Many of the juiciest secrets will likely hold until fans are in theaters, but new franchise addition Michelle Randolph shared some fun (if vague) details about the sequel.
Appearing on IMDb’s Stars to Watch with a group of other popular young actors like Tyriq Withers and Sarah Catherine Hook , Randolph & Co. were asked about joining movie and TV adaptations, as well as joining franchises. This is where the Landman co-star was able to address how quickly her Scream 7 casting came together, and teased what fans can expect.
Randolph was indeed getting back into Landman mode as Ainsley Norris when her first major foray into slasher horror came about. In her words:
So I had just gotten to Texas, because I filmed Landman in Texas, and my manager calls me and she’s like, ‘There’s this project, Scream,’ or whatever, and I was very excited, because I have been told I have a very loud scream before, and everyone’s always joked like, ‘Oh, you should be a scream queen.’ And I actually got to do this.
Ainsley does do a bit of screaming on Landman, but it's more the "Hell yeah, I'm partying at a strip club with my mom!" kind of screaming. Should still work well with a tonal change, though. Interestingly enough, Michelle Randolph isn't the only youthful Taylor Sheridan star to be joining the Scream franchise with its seventh film. She'll be joining 1883's Isabel May, whose Elsa Dutton experienced her own violent death.
It turns out Randolph was not a cinephile of Wes Craven's metatextual horror, and it was a quick cram sesh for the actress, who continued:
I watched every single movie. I flew out three days later to film it, and it just all happened so fast. I haven’t actually had to talk about Scream before, so what can I say about it? . . . Every single person who worked on that set is a fan of the franchise itself.
How awkward might it have been had she shown up on the Scream 7 set only to realize that she was the only one there who wasn't familiar with the ins and outs of Ghostface's legacy. Thankfully, she did her homework.
When it comes to the actual teases, Randolph makes it sound like the new movie will be a real smorgasbord of lore. (Smorgas-lore? Lore-gasbord?) In her words:
There is so much. I hadn't seen it before. There's so many nuances and characters that come back, and it's referenced, and it's movies inside movies. It's so confusing if you're not familiar with it, and it was so cool to be able to talk to, like, the PA or the sound guy, and they all understand exactly what's happening. There's a lot of references to the original Scream, which is cool.
Sure, given that OG screenwriter Kevin Williamson is director with Neve Campbell's Sidney returning, a callback or two or three or four is expected. But I love that Michelle Randolph says there are "lots" of references to the original movie.
Those legacy callbacks very likely have something to do with the screenwriter saying Sidney's return is for very specific reasons. As well as why David Arquette's Dewey is returning, even if we weren't supposed to learn about that one so early.
I adore the way the Scream movies retain and resurface everything that's happened in the world of horror even outside the franchise itself. I might get annoyed if someone from a superhero or multi-sequel action franchise talked about how confusing a new project would be without knowledge of past films, but with Scream, I embrace labyrinthian plotlines with inside-baseball whodunnits. This has been my shit since 1996, so bring on all the callbacks, even if they make me feel old in the process.
Scream 7 is set to hit theaters on February 27, 2026.
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