Scream 7 Writer Reveals Why Sidney Returns and How Sequel Handles the “Core Four”

Hello again, Sidney. Six movies, multiple Ghostfaces, and three decades after the original Woodsboro murders, Neve Campbell‘s Sidney Prescott is picking up the phone one more time in Scream 7. (Campbell chose not to return for 2023’s Scream VI, with the New York-set sequel namechecking Sidney when Courteney Cox’s Gale Weathers reported that she and her husband, Mark, took their kids “somewhere safe.”)

The torch had passed to the Carpenter sisters, Sam (Melissa Barrera) and Tara (Jenna Ortega), with Sam having a connection to the OG Ghostface: she’s the daughter of the late Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich), Sidney’s ex and the masked killer who committed the Woodsboro murders with accomplice Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard) in 1996’s Scream.

RELATED: Scream Star Says Their Return for Scream 7 Was Supposed to Be a Surprise: “It Was a Spoiler”

Sam, Tara, and Meeks-Martin twins Chad (Mason Gooding) and Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) formed the “Core Four,” which is down to two. Barrera was fired by production company Spyglass Media Group over her comments about the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in which she expressed support for the the Palestinian cause, and Ortega announced her own exit in the wake of Barrera’s firing.

The original Scream 7 with Barrera and Ortega “was a completely different thing,” writer Guy Busick tells ComicBook in an interview pegged to Final Destination Bloodlines, which he also co-wrote. “We weren’t able to use what we had in the previous iteration for this one. [We] just had to start from scratch, which was a bummer.”

“We were excited about what we had for that movie. We wanted to do one more ‘Core Four’ movie,” Busick continues of the four friends introduced together in the 2022 legacy sequel Scream. “We know the fans love those characters. We love those characters. We created those characters. I would love to see, in some universe, the continuation of their characters, in some way. But we weren’t able to port over the stuff from the other story. It was like, ‘Okay, here is what the universe dealt us.’ We always wanted to do a Sidney movie and so it was like, ‘All right, let’s get into it and why now and why this one?’”

So, why bring back Sidney now, and why in Scream 7? After all, Gale told Sam and Tara in VI, “She deserves her happy ending.”

“I don’t want to give anything away about the reason [Scream 7] had to be a Sidney movie because there’s a really cool reason,” Busick teases. “In all these movies, you have to ask, ‘Why now? What is the thing Scream is commenting on now?’ Scream is always in a conversation with the audience about the state of movies, the state of horror movies and in particular, franchises.”

Busick seems to suggest that the meta-horror franchise’s seventh entry is a commentary on the trend of the legacy sequel. 2018’s Halloween, 2022’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre, 2023’s The Exorcist: Believer, and 2025’s I Know What You Did Last Summer, decades-later sequels and quasi-reboots that brought back original characters and actors. 2022’s Scream got in on the legacy-quel by reuniting the trio of Sidney, Gale, and Dewey (David Arquette) for the first time since 2011.

“There is a really specific reason why Sidney is in this movie. I will say there is a reason and we were happy with it when we cracked it,” Busick says. “We went to Neve Campbell and said, ‘This is why. This is why Sidney now.’ Neve was like, ‘Oh, I get that.’ I pitched Kevin [Williamson] this first, too. He got it and then I pitched the studio. I came up with the story with my co-writer on [Scream] 5 and 6, James Vanderbilt.”

Scream writer-creator Williamson, who also penned the screenplays for 1997’s Scream 2 and 2011’s Scream 4, is making his series directorial debut after taking over from Happy Death Day director Christopher Landon (who dropped out from the “dream job that turned into a nightmare” in December 2023).

Busick credits Vanderbilt with the idea bringing the Meeks-Martin twins into Scream 7 without the other half of the Core Four.

“I believe it was James that came up with it. I want to give credit where credit is due, but it was an organic way why they would be in this movie,” Busick adds. “I don’t want to spoil anything, but I will say it’s through Gale. She’s the connective tissue in 5 and 6 and she’s in this. New York was obviously a big part of that. She bonded with those four and there’s a reason why these two come to this town where the action is happening.”

Whether that town is Woodsboro, California, or the as-yet-unnamed town where Sidney is in hiding, Busick couldn’t say. “It’s not New York,” he offers. “I don’t want to be the one to spoil where it is. It’s an unspecified amount of time [after VI]. I might get contradicted by other people, but in my mind, more than two years. I would say at least two years. It could be two years, but I would say two years plus.”

Adding to the mystery: Dewey, who was killed off in 5, is somehow returning. Arquette reprises his role alongside Lillard (Scream) and Scott Foley’s Roman Bridger (Scream 3), both killed-off Ghostfaces.

New cast members include Joel McHale (Community) as Sidney’s husband, Mark, and Isabel May (1883) as Sidney’s daughter. Actors cast in undisclosed roles include Anna Camp (Pitch Perfect), Mark Consuelos (Riverdale), Ethan Embry (Grace and Frankie), Asa Germann (Gen V), Sam Rechner (The Fabelmans), Michelle Randolph (Landman), Jimmy Tatro (Theater Camp), Celeste O’Connor (Madame Web), and Mckenna Grace (Sunrise on the Reaping).

Scream 7 slashes into theaters on Feb. 27, 2026.