Two faces of the last two Scream movies, Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega, are not returning for Scream VII for very different reasons. The duo played the sisters Sam and Tara Carpenter. The last two installments were directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, however, they will be replaced by Christopher Landon for the next. Jasmine Savoy Brown and Mason Gooding costarred as the twins Mindy and Chad Meeks-Martin, with stars from past films popping up as well.
Production company Spyglass Media fired Barrera after she posted comments on social media regarding the current conflict between Israel and Hamas. Her messages were interpreted by some as being anti-Semitic.
The studio issued this statement:
“Spyglass’ stance is unequivocally clear: We have 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.”
What’s Going On With Scream VII
It was announced that Jenna Ortega would not star due to scheduling conflicts with the filming of the second season of her hit Netflix series Wednesday. Though the timing is suspicious, especially coming so quickly after Barrera’s firing, she reportedly informed Spyglass Media before the SAG-AFTRA strike that she was heading to Ireland to film Wednesday at a point when the Scream VII script wasn’t even completed. In addition, she has more filming to do on the Beetlejuice sequel.
In the Scream franchise, Ortega’s Tara is just part of an ensemble cast with the brand itself being the real draw. But for Wednesday, she is the headliner and was nominated for Best Actress in a Comedy for both the Primetime Emmys and Golden Globes. And she parlayed that into landing the female lead in Beetlejuice. So her star is rising. It isn’t that big a shock that she might want to shift away from a low-budget horror series (albeit one with a huge following) and focus on projects with bigger budgets in which she is the main attraction.
Rumors have since emerged that Spyglass will court Neve Campbell to return after she sat out Scream VI, reportedly due to financial conflicts.
What do you think of the future of the Scream franchise? Are you interested if Barrera and Ortega are not included?
