Neve Campbell reveals why she returned to ‘Scream’
Despite being the face of the franchise since Wes Craven’s influential first instalment released in 1996, the relationship between Neve Campbell and the Scream saga hasn’t always been a straightforward one.
The actor played Sidney Prescott in the first four movies, and after a decade-long sabbatical, she returned for the 2022 hybrid of reboot and legacy sequel, which marked the first Scream film to be made following Craven’s passing in 2015.
Courteney Cox and David Arquette rounded out the veteran trio, but the Friends alumni was the only one of the three to return for Scream VI. Arquette had his own reasons for not coming back, as anyone who has seen its predecessor can attest, but things were a lot more fraught as it applied to Campbell.
The actor was supposed to be part of the cast, but ended up walking away from the project when she was presented with a financial offer that didn’t match up to the perception she held of her value to the brand, but those differences have evidently been reconciled when she agreed to sign on for Scream VII.
It hasn’t been an easy road to even get to that point, though, with new leads Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega absent, while original director Christopher Landon also jumped ship to be replaced by veteran screenwriter and Scream stalwart Kevin Williamson.
However, it sounds like Sidney is going to be the focal point of the seventh chapter, with Campbell explaining that was one of the major reasons she was eager to end her brief self-imposed exiled. “We are going to follow Sidney,” she told Entertainment Tonight. “They did pitch the concept to me, and it’s the reason that I jumped on board.”
It’s been almost 30 years since Ghostface began terrorising victims, but Campbell remains a fan of Scream first and foremost. “I love these movies,” she said. “They are so much fun to be a part of, I’m so grateful for them, I could never have imagined being part of a movie that would have lasted this many decades.”
As things stand, Campbell and Williamson are the only names officially confirmed for Scream VII, with no start date locked-in for production as of yet. It’s not an obligation for any long-running franchise to maintain a direct link to its past, but it wouldn’t feel like a Scream flick if there wasn’t at least one legacy player involved in a major capacity, with Sidney enduring as the original ‘final girl’.
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