What’s your favorite scary movie series? Well, for a lot of people the answer is Wes Craven’s “meta before meta was cool” Scream franchise! The slasher series that lampooned and subsequently reinvented the genre is coming back for one more round of slicing and dicing with the fifth film in the franchise, simply titled Scream (2022).
Both a sequel and a soft franchise reboot (or a “requel” as we like to call them), Scream (2022) is coming to us from Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, the filmmakers behind the instant classic Ready Or Not (2019). The film recently wrapped its principal photography last month and is the first installment in the Scream series since the unfortunate passing of series creator Wes Craven. The Scream films are generally known for having a lot of major twists and this time around not even most of the cast know who is lurking behind the Ghostface mask!
In a recent interview with Cinema Blend producer William Sherak confirmed that many of the cast members that worked on the film still don’t know who the real killer is! He revealed that there were several different fake versions of the script handed out among the cast and only a select few know the truth about the new Ghostface. They wanted to do everything they could to ensure that the film’s ending didn’t leak before its release. Sherak said:
I think there’s two things to remember for us. One is there are multiple versions of the draft out there and most of the cast don’t know if they have the right version or not. So we’ve been playing that game with them as well. And the fun of a Scream movie is that everyone is guilty until proven innocent, not the other way around. So the goal is to keep that going for as long as possible and have fun with it.
The real endgame here is to keep the audience guessing as to who the real Ghostface is until the very end, meaning that everyone is a suspect and that all bets are off! In addition to everyone being a suspect, anyone could just as likely be a victim this time around and there is a very good chance that we may be saying goodbye forever to one or more of the Scream franchise’s longtime stars.
As is standard for the Scream films, the cast is a healthy mix of new faces and returning fan favorites. Of course, we have our trio of returning stars with Neve Campbell as Sydney Prescott, Courtney Cox as Gale Weathers, and David Arquette as Dewey Riley, who have all been with the series since the first film. We can also look forward to the return of Scream 4‘s Marley Shelton, who is back for her second appearance in the franchise.
Rounding out the cast are plenty of new faces that fans will grow to love (or hate. It’s a slasher movie, after all, so don’t get too attached) including Jack Quaid (The Boys), Dylan Minnette (13 Reasons Why), Jasmin Savoy Brown (The Leftovers), Jenna Ortega (You), and Mikey Madison (Once Upon A Time In Hollywood). It has also been implied that longtime fans of the franchise may be able to expect a surprise blast from the past or two, although this has not been confirmed.
Scream (2022) is currently set to release in theaters on January 14, 2022.
What are you hoping to see from the newest chapter in this iconic horror franchise? Do you think all of our original heroes will make it past the credits alive for a fifth time? Let us know in the comments section below and stick around here at Geek Anything for all the latest info on the Scream franchise!
