Did Scream 7 Just Spoil Its Own Ending by Bringing Back Stu?

Like seriously, Wtf?

The Scream franchise was riding high. Scream 5 was a hit, Scream 6 did even better, and for the first time since the early 2000s, Ghostface felt like a true pop culture force again. Horror fans were in, the general audience was in, and Paramount had a genuine success story on their hands.

Then, in the span of a few months, it all went up in flames.

Melissa Barrera, the lead of the last two films, got fired. Jenna Ortega, the franchise’s rising star, left shortly after. The director, Christopher Landon, took one look at the chaos and bailed. Now, Kevin Williamson—who hadn’t written a Scream movie since 2011—is back in charge, bringing with him an abandoned storyline from Scream 3 and somehow resurrecting Matthew Lillard’s Stu Macher in the process.

What the hell happened?

It all started with Barrera. In November 2023, she was dropped from Scream 7 after making social media posts about the Israel-Hamas conflict. Spyglass Media Group, led by CEO Gary Barber, claimed her posts were antisemitic. Barrera denied that, arguing she was criticizing government actions rather than an entire people. Regardless of intent, the damage was done. Spyglass cut her loose, and overnight, the Scream franchise lost its main protagonist.

That alone was bad enough, but then came Ortega. The official reason for her exit was scheduling conflicts with Wednesday Season 2, but come on—everyone knew what was up. Whether it was an act of solidarity with Barrera or just a convenient excuse to walk away from the mess forming behind the scenes, Ortega’s departure gutted Scream 7’s star power.

When asked about the situation later, Ortega didn’t address it directly but made a telling statement about Hollywood’s hypersensitivity to controversy:

> "The business that we work in is so touchy-feely. Everybody wants to be politically correct, but I feel like, in doing that, we lose a lot of our humanity and integrity, because it lacks honesty. I wish that we had a better sense of conversation. Imagine if everyone could say what they felt and not be judged for it and, if anything, it sparked some sort of debate, not an argument."

If that doesn’t scream carefully worded frustration, I don’t know what does.

Christopher Landon had enough. He was hired to direct a fun slasher sequel, not referee a Hollywood controversy. A few weeks after Barrera’s firing, he exited the project, tweeting, “This was not the way I wanted this to go.” No elaboration, no parting words about the franchise—just a clean break.

And then, out of nowhere, Kevin Williamson entered the chat.

If you know Scream, you know Williamson. He wrote the first two movies, helped out on Scream 3 before bailing halfway through production, and returned for Scream 4. Now, after more than a decade away, he’s back in full control—writing, producing, and directing Scream 7. And what’s his big idea?

Apparently, Scream 3… but for real this time.

Back in the late ‘90s, the original plan for Scream 3 was that Stu Macher had survived the events of the first film and was secretly orchestrating a new wave of Ghostface killings from prison. That storyline was scrapped after the Columbine massacre forced the studio to rethink a plot about high school killers. Williamson never got to make that movie.

But he did make The Following, a two-season Fox series about a cult of serial killers led by a charismatic psychopath. That show was basically Scream 3’s abandoned plot, just with Kevin Bacon playing the cop chasing them down. And now, 25 years later, Williamson is dusting off the idea again—this time for Scream 7.

Which means Matthew Lillard is back. Yes, that Matthew Lillard. The same one who had a TV dropped on his head in the first movie. The same one who’s spent the last two decades joking that maybe Stu survived. Turns out, he wasn’t joking.

And he’s loving it.

The moment the news broke, Lillard posted a video of himself scribbling in pen: “Mom and Dad are going to be so mad at me”—a direct callback to one of Stu’s most famous lines from the original Scream. If nothing else, the guy knows how to play to the fans.

Here’s the problem: this completely kills the mystery. Scream has always been about the whodunit—the fun of guessing who’s behind the mask. If the entire marketing campaign revolves around “Stu is back,” then the movie has already lost that intrigue. Are we really going to spend two hours pretending we don’t know who’s pulling the strings?

Then there’s the other problem: bringing back dead characters changes what Scream is. Ghostface isn’t supposed to be Michael Myers. There’s no supernatural element, no zombie resurrections. If Stu just casually returns after getting crushed by a TV, what’s stopping the next movie from bringing back Billy Loomis in the flesh? What’s stopping Scream 8 from just fully embracing horror movie immortality?

Look, I get it. It’s been a brutal few months for this franchise. Spyglass burned bridges with the fans, the last two leads are gone, and Kevin Williamson is playing a desperate game of “what worked before?” But when the best solution is to revive a long-dead villain, maybe it’s time to step back and ask if Scream 7 should even exist.

And yet, despite all this, I still want to be excited.

Because let’s be real: Scream isn’t just another horror franchise. It’s one of the most successful slasher series of all time, with nearly $1 billion in theatrical revenue and likely over a billion when factoring in home video sales. It’s a cornerstone of the genre, and Ghostface is right up there with Freddy, Jason, and Michael as one of the most iconic killers in film history.

So yeah, fans are passionate about this movie. They want it to be great. They want it to matter.

The only question is—will Scream 7 actually honor the legacy that Wes Craven built, or is this the moment where the franchise finally jumps the knife?