Neve Campbell Is Coming Back To The Scream Franchise After Being Low-Balled For The Last Movie

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SOURCE - This may come as a surprise, as Campbell opted not to return for Scream VI following a pay dispute. According to Deadline, she issued a statement in June 2022, in which she elaborated on the “very difficult decision to move on.”

“As a woman I have had to work extremely hard in my career to establish my value, especially when it comes to Scream,” she explained. “I felt the offer that was presented to me did not equate to the value I have brought to the franchise.”

Nonetheless, in an Instagram post shared on Tuesday, Campbell wrote that she was “so excited to announce this news” that “Sidney Prescott is coming back” alongside a picture of her script, per Variety.

Sydney Prescott is back! Or rather, Sydney Prescott finally got PAID. Everything surrounding Scream 7 has been a wild disaster almost since they announced they were moving forward with the movie. This is the first good news we've heard from the world of Ghostface in months!

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Back in November, Melissa Barrera got fired for posts about the Israel-Hamas war. The very next day, Jenna Ortega left the movie because of a conflict with the Wednesday production schedule. That to me sounds like absolute bullshit. I might believe it if they said they had to delay production to replace Barrera and Ortega couldn't make it work but there is no way anyone would know that the very next day. I think Ortega just had her friend's back.

This sounds like it opened up a lot of extra money to call Neve Campbell back with an actual offer. I'm really happy for her to finally get some respect for carrying the franchise through five movies. Scream 6 was still a solid movie without her but something certainly felt missing the entire time. The ending was also very weak but that's a separate issue.

The other big news is the change of director Christopher Landon left the project in December but who knows if that was even his choice. At that point, it was a "movie" with no stars. Now, Kevin Williamson is directing Scream 7. I'm a little torn here. Williamson wrote Scream I, II and IV. But this will be only the second movie he's ever directed and the first this century. His only movie Teaching Mrs. Tingle came out in 1999. It is at best "forgettable" and at worst "awful". I would much rather have had Williamson write this instead of direct it. This feels like when the Pats made Matt Patricia the OC. You got the right guy doing the wrong job.

I just want the Scream movies to be good. Neve Campbell being back makes them better. She also deserves getting paid. Courteney Cox is great in these but this is Neve's franchise. I don't know how they plan on moving the franchise away from Barrera/Ortega (especially after propelling the last two movies towards them). David Arquette's Dewey isn't around to make these as funny. 

But Campbell being back certainly puts this movie in a whole new light. I'm actually excited for it now. Imagine if they gave her a huge payday to kill her off in this one? No chance, right? Right?