Scream: Drew Barrymore Explains Why She Had to Die in Opening Scene

Scream 5 is officially happening, which means horror fans have been reminiscing about the movie that kicked off the iconic franchise. In many ways, Scream rebooted horror films in the '90s and one of its most unique moments was killing off the very-famous Drew Barrymore in the opening scene. During a recent visit to Hot Ones, Barrymore explained why Casey Becker had to die so soon. In fact, she revealed it was her idea.

"In the horror film genre, my biggest pet peeve was that I always knew the main character was always going to be slugging through at the end but was going to creak by and make it," Barrymore explained. "What I wanted to do is to take that comfort zone away. I asked if I could be Casey Becker so that we would establish that rule does not apply in this film."

While Casey's death remains one of the biggest twists in horror history, there are three very important Scream characters who managed to survive all four movies, and two have been confirmed for Scream 5. It was recently announced that David Arquette and Courteney Cox would be returning for Scream 5 to play Dewey Riley and Gale Weathers, respectively. Arquette has been talking about his time the franchise lately, revealing that Cox's infamous bangs from Scream 3 were actually his fault. The actor also recently shared that he hopes Neve Campbell will return to play franchise lead, Sidney Prescott.

Ready or Not directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett have been tapped to direct Scream 5, marking the first time someone other than the late Wes Craven has stepped behind the camera for one of the Scream movies. The screenplay was written by The Amazing Spider-man's James Vanderbilt and Castle Rock's Guy Busick.

As for Barrymore, the star will soon begin her own talk show, The Drew Barrymore Show, on CBS. An adorable promo for the show featured Barrymore interviewing her younger self using old footage from The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. In the promo, Barrymore promises that her new show is "going to spend an hour every day celebrating life." The show is currently scheduled to premiere on September 14th.

Are you excited about Scream 5? Do you plan to watch The Drew Barrymore Show? Tell us in the comments!

The new Scream is currently set to hit theaters in 2021. You can watch Barrymore's Hot Ones episode in the video above.