The Scream franchise’s plans for its reboot trilogy make its direction change with Scream 7 even more disappointing. The horror genre has been seizing the wave of reboots and legacy sequels for years now, and through these, different popular horror franchises have been brought back to life, though not all of them successfully. One that made a successful return with a reboot/legacy sequel is the Scream franchise, which had supposedly ended with Wes Craven’s Scream 4 a decade before the release of its fifth movie, simply titled Scream.
Scream 2022 brought back the three main survivors of the past movies – Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox), and Dewey Riley (David Arquette) – and introduced a new generation of characters who became the targets of a new Ghostface killer. Leading the new characters were sisters Sam (Melissa Barrera) and Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega), with Sam having a direct link to the original Woodsboro killers and the previous movies. The reboot trilogy is now at risk following the success of Scream VI as the third installment has gone through massive changes, which are more disappointing when learning about the franchise’s plan for the trilogy.
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The Scream Franchise Planned For Samantha Carpenter To Have A Three-Movie Arc
Sam was supposed to lead the Scream reboot trilogy.
Scream 2022 was a big critical and commercial success, with critics praising Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett’s direction and the cast’s performances, with some calling it the best Scream sequel to date. Not long after the release of the fifth Scream movie, a sequel was confirmed to be in development, so Sam and Tara’s story continued in Scream VI. The sequel was also a success, guaranteeing that a third entry in the reboot timeline would be greenlit, but Scream 7 has already encountered massive changes that have completely changed the direction of the Scream reboot films.
Speaking to Screen Rant while promoting Faster, Purple Worm! Kill! Kill!, Skeet Ulrich revealed that the Scream reboot was pitched to him as a three-movie-arc with Sam as the lead character. As mentioned above, Sam was the new generation’s direct link to the previous movies and the first Woodsboro murders as she was revealed to be Billy Loomis’ (Ulrich) daughter. Ulrich appeared in Scream 2022 and Scream VI in hallucinations that Sam had, hinting at a possible evil living inside her.
Scream’s Three-Movie Plan Makes The Franchise’s New Direction More Disappointing
The Scream reboot trilogy will now be incomplete.
Scream’s three-movie plan for its reboot timeline was exciting before Scream 7’s many problems as it meant that there was more to see and learn about Sam before the franchise ended. Unfortunately, given what has happened with Scream 7 so far, the three-movie arc is now making the reboot trilogy and the franchise’s new direction more disappointing. After finding its director in Christopher Landon, production of Scream 7 slowed due to the 2023 Hollywood strikes, and in November 2023, Melissa Barrera was fired from the film. The following day, it was announced that Jenna Ortega had left Scream 7, and so the sequel was left without its two leads.
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Following Barrera and Ortega’s departures, it was reported that Scream 7’s screenwriters had been tasked with “starting from scratch”, but the film was about to face another shake-up. On December 2023, Landon announced that he had exited Scream 7, saying it was “a dream job that turned into a nightmare”. The future of Scream 7 is now unclear, even though it could still move on with other characters like the Meeks twins or it could bring Sidney Prescott back for one final encounter with Ghostface.
Whatever happens with Scream 7, knowing that the original plan was a three-movie arc for Sam makes the whole situation with the seventh film even more disappointing. With Barrera and Ortega’s exit, the Scream reboot timeline will now be incomplete, as there’s no way Scream 7 can now give Sam a satisfying ending.
What Could Have Happened If Sam Carpenter Returned For Scream 7
Some questions about Sam weren’t answered.
Sam’s link to Billy Loomis and the hallucinations she had of her father talking to her left many questions that would have surely been answered in Scream 7. In the above-mentioned interview with Screen Rant, Ulrich shared that Scream 7 would have explored Sam’s connection to Billy a bit deeper, answering the question of whether she had a natural desire to kill or not. Sam’s possible killer instincts had been hinted at since Scream 2022, where a hallucination of Billy led her to pick up a knife and kill one of the Ghostface killers, so Scream 7 could have shown if Sam was meant to become a killer or she could break free from her heritage.
Another important part of Sam’s story that Scream 7 could have addressed was all about her and Tara’s mother, who had been absent since Scream 2022. Sam’s arc in the Scream franchise will now be left incomplete no matter if Scream 7 happens or not, and knowing that there was a plan to tell her story in three movies makes the future of the Scream reboot timeline more disappointing and frustrating.
Scream
- Created by
- Wes Craven , Kevin Williamson
- First Film
- Scream
- Cast
- Roger Jackson , Courtney Cox , Neve Campbell , David Arquette , Skeet Ulrich , Jamie Kennedy , Heather Matarazzo , Hayden Panettiere , Melissa Barrera , Jenna Ortega , Patrick Dempsey , Mason Gooding , Jasmin Savoy Brown , Jack Quaid
