Scream 6 Star Praises Neve Campbell for Refusing Sequel Return

After the success of Scream earlier this year, a sixth movie was announced that will feature most of the fifth movie's survivors as well as longtime franchise star, Courteney Cox (Gale Weathers). However, Neve Campbell will not be returning as Sidney Prescott due to a pay disagreement. This will mark the first movie of the franchise that will not include Campbell. Melissa Barrera, who starred as Samantha Carpenter in the fifth installment, recently spoke to Variety and commented on Campbell's choice not to return. 

"It was shocking, but also, as a woman, I get it," Barrera explained. "Especially as a woman of color, I deal with that stuff all the time where I feel like they're not paying me what I know that I'm worth. But usually, for me, I feel like it's because I'm a Latina, and they don't value us as much as white women. So if Neve being a white woman is feeling undervalued, that just goes to show how much of a problem it is in the industry. I applaud her sticking to what she believes in."

This week, Campbell spoke with PEOPLE and opened up about the discrepancy in pay equality.

"I did not feel that what I was being offered equated to the value that I bring to this franchise, and have brought to this franchise, for 25 years," Campbell told the magazine. "And as a woman in this business, I think it's really important for us to be valued and to fight to be valued." She added, "I honestly don't believe that if I were a man and had done five installments of a huge blockbuster franchise over 25 years, that the number that I was offered would be the number that would be offered to a man. And in my soul, I just couldn't do that. I couldn't walk on set feeling that — feeling undervalued and feeling the unfairness, or lack of fairness, around that."

Since David Arquette's Dewey was killed in the fifth Scream and Campbell won't be returning for the sixth movie, Cox is poised to be the only star from the original film to appear in Scream 6. However, with new cast members like Barrera, Jenna Ortega, Mason Gooding, and Jasmin Savoy Brown all returning, it's possible that Gale will only earn minimal screen time.

"I did not die so yes you will see me," Cox confirmed to Variety. "Gale's pretty strong. She may not ever [die], but who knows!"

Scream 6 is slated to hit theaters on March 31, 2023.