What’s your favorite scary movie trailer? If recency bias is your thing, the answer is definitely the first look at Scream 7, which just dropped. The seventh movie in the Scream franchise is a pretty massive departure from the last two installments, and also a return to form for the franchise.
For the first time since 2011’s Scream 4, Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott is the central character, taking the reins back from Sam (Melissa Barrera) and Tara (Jenna Ortega), the sisters at the front of 2022’s Scream and 2023’s Scream 6. Joining her once more is Courteney Cox, reprising her role as Gale Weathers. Cox remains one of only two actors to appear in every Scream film, the other being the voice of Ghostface, Roger L. Jackson.
The trailer sets the stage for a brand-new Ghostface to take the battle to the town Sidney lives in now, telling her it reminds them of their shared hometown. He then sets a target directly on her daughter, Tatum — named for Rose McGowan’s character in the first film. In addition to the daughter, we’ll also meet Sid’s husband for the first time, though we don’t see him in the trailer.
Sidney mentioned her husband Mark in Scream (2022), leaving many fans believing she married Det. Mark Kinkaid (Patrick Dempsey), her love interest from Scream 3. Instead, this Mark is played by Joel McHale and we know absolutely nothing about him. With that in mind, he’s probably the killer, right?
Photo: Philippe Bossé/Paramount Pictures
While Sam and Tara have moved on, we will get some familiar faces from those films in the form of Chad (Mason Gooding) and Mindy (Jasmine Savoy Brown) Meeks-Martin, the dorky nephew and niece of Randy (Jamie Kennedy) from the first two Scream movies. We will also meet Sidney’s husband and daughter for the first time.
Earlier this year, Deadline reported that we can expect to see appearances by dead characters, including Dewey (David Arquette), original Scream co-killer Stu (Matthew Lillard), and Scream 3 killer Roman (Scott Foley). It remains to be seen how that would work, unless it’s done similar to Skeet Ulrich’s return in Scream (2022), with Sam having visions of her long-dead father.
Then again, perhaps they’re all secretly alive and carrying out the new Ghostface kills with Sidney’s husband, Joel McHale. While that might sound like too much, even for Scream, never forget that one of the original plans for Scream 2 was to have Stu survive the first movie and mastermind the second spate of killings from jail. However, a close listen to the trailer certainly will lead you to believe Dewey’s voice is in there telling Sidney, “All your friends die for just being near you.”
Perhaps these appearances are little more than visions Sidney is having, given her horrible history. That said, we hope not. Though, technically, Dewey is right. And that’s definitely Lillard’s voice as Stu at the end of the trailer, noting, “This is gonna’ be fun.” We’re pretty sure that’s audio from the first film, though.
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Whatever the case, Scream 7 will be directed by Kevin Williamson, his first time behind the camera for a feature film since 1999’s Teaching Mrs. Tingle. Luckily, he’s more familiar with the series than practically anyone else, having created the franchise and written three of the original four movies.
While this trailer didn’t give too much away, there’s still plenty of time before Scream 7 hits theaters on Feb. 27 for us to learn — or wildly speculate — more about what’s to come.
