The horror genre continues to thrive in its current renaissance, to the joy of fans like me. Some of the best horror movies returned to theaters with new sequels including Wes Craven's Scream. The seventh movie is one of the most highly anticipated upcoming horror movies, and will see the return of Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott. And the movie's writer teased there's a very specific way she'll be brought back into the story.
What we know about Scream 7 is limited, but hardcore fans are hyped for Sidney's return after Neve Campbell's absence from Scream VI. In the last movie Sam and Gale agreed that Sidney deserved to have some peace, so how is she convinced to once again face Ghostface? Writer Guy Busick spoke to ComicBook about this, offering:
I don’t want to give anything away about the reason [Scream 7] had to be a Sidney movie because there’s a really cool reason. In all these movies, you have to ask, ‘Why now? What is the thing Scream is commenting on now?’ Scream is always in a conversation with the audience about the state of movies, the state of horror movies and in particular, franchises
How delightfully cryptic. While careful not to actually reveal anything about the slasher's plot, it sounds like Busick and company methodically planned why Sidney would get back into the action. And I've got a few theories about how this might work out in the seventh movie.
I think in order for Sidney to dive back into the action a Scream legacy character might need to be involved. Having someone close to her die or in danger sounds like the logical reason to get the scream queen back in the game. As Busick went on:
There is a really specific reason why Sidney is in this movie. I will say there is a reason and we were happy with it when we cracked it. We went to Neve Campbell and said, ‘This is why. This is why Sidney now.’ Neve was like, ‘Oh, I get that.’ I pitched Kevin [Williamson] this first, too. He got it and then I pitched the studio. I came up with the story with my co-writer on [Scream] 5 and 6, James Vanderbilt.
So exactly which characters might inspire Sid to once again fight a mysterious masked killer? I have a feeling that the opening kill might be a big part of it, but that's just my own personal theory. For instance, if Sidney's husband Mark is killed off, that would be reason for her to seek revenge.
Ever since Heather Matarazzo returned in 2022's Scream as Martha Meeks, I've been hoping to see her back and actually interacting with Ghostface. I think her death would be another reason for Sidney to return, and reunite with Chad and Mindy Meeks-Martin (who are both confirmed to be appearing in the next film) aka her kids.
With Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega both not appearing, Scream's Core Four are officially breaking up. While Jasmin Savoy Brown and Mason Gooding are back as the twins, Busick explained that the Core Four was originally the focus of the slasher. In his words:
We were excited about what we had for that movie. We wanted to do one more ‘Core Four’ movie. We know the fans love those characters. We love those characters. We created those characters. I would love to see, in some universe, the continuation of their characters, in some way. But we weren’t able to port over the stuff from the other story. It was like, ‘Okay, here is what the universe dealt us.’ We always wanted to do a Sidney movie and so it was like, ‘All right, let’s get into it and why now and why this one?
It should be interesting to see what the story of Scream 7 ultimately ends up being. It sounds like a brand new script was formed after the casting shakeup, once again putting Campbell's Sidney at the center the franchise. At least we got 1/2 of the Core Four in the slasher flick.
All will be revealed when Scream 7 hits theaters on February 27th, 2026. Since it's not on the 2025 movie release list, we should probably try to keep patient while we wait for more news about the slasher.
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