What Neve Campbell’s Return Means For Scream 7: Can It Save The $913M Horror Franchise?

Neve Campbell is officially returning to the Scream franchise in Scream 7, and this is a lot more meaningful and important to the franchise than it seems. Wes Craven’s Scream was key to revitalizing the slasher genre in the 1990s, and as such, it’s one of the most influential horror movies of all time. The success of Scream made way for a franchise with a total of six movies, with the latter two part of a reboot trilogy. The first four Scream movies followed Sidney Prescott (Campbell), the main target of every Ghostface killer for different reasons, thus becoming the franchise’s main Final Girl.

Sidney returned in the legacy sequel Scream 2022 along with Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) and Dewey Riley (David Arquette) to meet a new generation of characters, among them new Final Girls Sam (Melisa Barrera) and Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega). Campbell didn’t return in Scream VI due to salary disputes and her future in the franchise was unclear. However, after the many shakeups Scream 7 went through with Barrera’s firing, Ortega dropping out, and director Christopher Landon also leaving, hope for Campbell’s return was reignited – and now she’s officially coming back to the Scream saga for one more encounter with Ghostface.

Neve Campbell Is Officially Returning As Sidney Prescott In Scream 7 After Missing Scream 6

Sidney Prescott is coming back.

Although Sidney wasn’t the target of the Ghostface killers in Scream 2022, she played an important role as she not only further helped connect the reboot movies to the past four films, but also served as a guide to Sam and Tara throughout the 2022 Woodsboro murders. Despite Scream 2022 not leaving much room for Sidney’s return, Campbell was expected to return in Scream 6, mostly as Courteney Cox was set to reprise her role as Gale Weathers one more time. Unfortunately, in June 2022, Campbell announced she wasn’t going to return for Scream 6 as her contract and salary negotiations had stalled.

After Scream 7 lost its two Final Girls and original director, rumors about Campbell’s possible return started to emerge, as the final entry in the reboot trilogy was now missing a protagonist/Final Girl. Campbell herself confirmed that she’s coming back for Scream 7 on an Instagram post showing the script, through which she also confirmed that franchise creator Kevin Williamson will direct the film. At the time of writing, details about Campbell’s contract and salary are unknown, as well as Sidney’s role in the film.

What Sidney’s Story Could Be In Scream 7 (Based On The Reboot Movies’ Teases)

Sidney Prescott finally got a peaceful life.

Sidney Prescott spent most of her teenage and young adult years in constant fear of being attacked by a Ghostface killer. Sidney Prescott went through many betrayals in the first four Scream movies, with the first Ghostface killers being her boyfriend, Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich), and his friend Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard). Sidney later faced the anger of Billy’s mother in Scream 2, who was aided by Sidney’s friend Mickey Altieri (Timothy Olyphant), and she learned she had a half-brother, Roman Bridger (Scott Foley), in Scream 3, and that he was also responsible for pushing Billy and Stu into killing, including murdering his and Sidney’s mother.

After her cousin, Jill (Emma Roberts), and her friend Charlie (Rory Culkin), tried to kill her in Scream 4, Sidney was finally able to break free from Woodsboro and Ghostface. By the time of the events of Scream 2022, Sidney was living far away from Woodsboro and had married and formed a family. Her husband was mentioned by Gale to be named “Mark”, and it’s understood that it’s Scream 3’s Detective Mark Kincaid (Patrick Dempsey), with whom Sidney was seen starting a relationship at the end of Scream 3.

Sidney’s family is now her priority, so something big and shocking would have to happen for her to go back to Woodsboro or get involved in the murder spree of a new Ghostface killer (supposing Scream 7 doesn’t take place in Woodsboro) – or, if no one is safe in Scream 7, her family could be in danger. An unlikely but heavily theorized twist could be Sidney becoming the new Ghostface killer, but there would have to be very strong reasons for that to happen after everything she went through with the past Ghostface killers.

Will Any Of The Reboot Movies’ Core Four Actors Return For Scream 7?

Scream 7 already lost two of its main actors.

The first four Scream movies had Sidney, Dewey, and Gale, and the reboot movies have the self-named “Core Four”: Sam, Tara, Chad (Mason Gooding) and Mindy Meeks-Martin (Jasmin Savoy Brown), the latter two the nephew and niece of the late Randy Meeks (Jamie Kennedy), Sidney’s best friend. Unfortunately, the Core Four’s story can no longer continue as it should have due to Barrera and Ortega’s exits, so there’s only Gooding and Brown’s Chad and Mindy left.

Scream 7 could shift its focus to the Meeks-Martin twins in order to keep the connection between the new generation and the original movies, which it had through Sam as she’s the daughter of Billy Loomis, but Gooding and Brown’s involvement in Scream 7 hasn’t been confirmed yet.

Neve Campbell’s Return Means We Can Expect More Legacy Character Returns In Scream 7

There are a couple of characters who can return.

Neve Campbell’s return in Scream 7 opens the door for more legacy characters to return in the final entry of the reboot trilogy. In addition to Gale and, possibly, Kirby (Hayden Panettiere) after her appearance in Scream 6, Scream 7 could bring back minor characters from the first four movies and give them bigger roles, such as Angelina Tyler (Emily Mortimer), who even though was stabbed by Roman in Scream 3, her death happened off-screen, so she could be brought back. Scream 7 could also bring back Sidney’s father, more so if the movie has a family focus.

Of course, the most likely legacy character to return, besides Gale and Kirby, is Mark Kincaid. Mark isn’t just Sidney’s husband, but he also went through the horrible experience of a Ghostface murder spree, and he got a different perspective on it, as he was the detective assigned to the case. Mark’s abilities can come in handy in Scream 7, more so now that he has a family to protect. Another character that has been theorized to still be alive and, if true, could return in Scream 7, is Stu Macher, though it’s worth noting that Williamson has previously said that Stu is dead.

Sidney Prescott Leading Scream 7 Is The Franchise’s Best Hope Of Survival After Cast Changes – But Will It Work?

Sidney Prescott can bring the franchise to a definitive end.

The many sudden changes that Scream 7 went through were enough for fans to lose interest in the project, but Neve Campbell’s return will surely be enough to attract their attention again. Sidney’s return is the Scream franchise’s best hope of survival, but it doesn’t guarantee that Scream 7 will be a success. Barrera and Ortega’s exit will leave many loose threads and unanswered questions, and Scream 7 will have to find a way to justify their absence, answer most (if not all) of the questions left about them, and bring Sidney back in the most organic way possible.

Scream 7 risks falling into the nostalgia trap of reboots and legacy sequels, and it has a couple of storylines from the previous two movies to wrap up in addition to Sidney’s. It’s to be seen what Scream 7’s story will be about and who else will join the cast and return, but for now, it’s already on a better path with Neve Campbell’s return.