Scream 7: How Does Matthew Lillard’s Stu Come Back? (Fan Theories Officially Made Canon)

The Scream franchise, unlike many horror series, has long been about the recurring cast members and familiar faces that have been there from the beginning. It’s why Neve Campbell not returning for 2024’s Scream VI was seen as a major blow to the series; to that point, she’d appeared in every sequel alongside Courteney Cox and David Arquette. Though other franchises may have one recurring character, Scream had an entire ensemble that would show back up for each new sequel, and Scream 7 put them all to shame by bringing some back from the dead. Spoilers will follow for Scream 7.

Scream 7 had fans reeling when it was coming together and confirmed that none other than Matthew Lillard would be returning to the series. Returning characters in Scream is nothing new, but Lillard was famously squished by a television in the first film, never to be seen or referenced again. Despite this, fan theories developed that Lillard’s Stu Macher may have survived the TV drop, a fact that Scream 7 makes sure to bring into the canon as a distinct possibility. In the end, Stu’s return is done exactly how you think: it’s all fake.

Read Next

Scream 8’s Fate Reportedly Already Confirmed Ahead of Scream 7’s Release

Scream 7 Brings Back Dead Characters Exactly How You Think

As a new round of Ghostface murders begin in the film, the killer goes out of their way to torment Sidney in a way that will actually get her attention: revealing himself immediately. What begins as a threatening phone call turns into a shocking video call, with the killer claiming to be a living, breathing Stu Macher, never dead and finally back for revenge. For the majority of Scream 7, Lillard’s appearances are only on video calls with Sidney, who believes that it’s being done with AI or Deep Fakes as a way to rattle her.

At one point, Scream 7 takes the “maybe Stu survived” fan theory and brings it into the fold fully from the opening minute, where a true crime podcast teases it, followed by the unlucky characters in the opening discussing it as well. Later, when a character suggests it as a possibility to Sidney, she refuses to believe it, but after meeting an employee at a nearby mental institution who identifies him as a “John Doe” recently released from the hospital, it seems like maybe it could be true. That said, Jasmin Savoy Brown’s Mindy Meeks-Martin calls it out as a bad idea, one that’s too much even for this franchise.

In the end, Mindy’s right and it is too much. Stu Macher definitely died in the first movie, and his presence in Scream 7 is exclusively as a deepfake/AI creation by the real killers to torment Sidney. The real twist, however, isn’t that Stu is dead and Lillard’s return to the series was exactly what was expected, but that he wasn’t alone. One last twist up the sleeve of the film’s killers is that they use deepfakes of other Ghostface killers who also return to the series, including Laurie Metcalf (Nancy Loomis from Scream 2) and Scott Foley (Roman Bridger from Scream 3). It goes one step further with David Arquette returning as Dewey Riley, but, again, it’s not real.

After Scream (2022) brought back Billy Loomis as a hallucination to torment his secret daughter, nothing seemed off the table for the Scream series. In the end, though, it did exactly what many theorized and was simply a deepfake. Granted, maybe the series can find a way to bring back Lillard in a less sweaty way in the future, or maybe this will complete the reunions from the first film.