Scream VII - Melissa Barrera AND Jenna Ortega Not Returning (Rant Time) - UPDATED

I was hoping to do another blog about Scream VII. However, this wasn't the sort of blog I thought I'd be doing.

Last night it was confirmed that Melissa Barrera who had been playing main protagonist Samantha Carpenter in both Scream (2022) and Scream VI would not be returning for the upcoming Scream VII, which was confirmed to start filming in early 2024 for a yet to be confirmed release date. The reason for this?

Oh yeah, it seems that Spyglass and Paramount sacked Melissa Barrera for expressing her views on the current situation with Palestine and Israel as she vocalised her solidarity with Palestine. What the actual fuck, Spyglass?

If you check the comments that Melissa had made on social media, not once did she say anything that was anti-Semitic in her support of Palestine. Needless to say for the last several hours, Spyglass have deservedly received backlash for their awful decision and criticism for their attempts to justify it. Spyglass have well and truly fucked up here.

Yeah and this blog is being edited because Jenna Ortega will also not be reprising her role as Tara Carpenter for Scream VII. Spyglass are trying to cite that her schedule for the second season of Wednesday (which will film in Ireland in late April 2024) is the main reason but something tells me they're trying to save face and money from both Barrera and Ortega not coming back. 

With both these exits and the unlikelihood that Jasmin Savoy-Brown and Mason Gooding will also come back as Mindy and Chad Meeks-Martin, what can both Spyglass and director Christopher Landon do to remedy a shit show the former could've easily avoided by not firing their lead actress? 

A part of me would hope that the online and media backlash would blow up so much that Spyglass would be forced to rehire Melissa Barrera and conclude Sam's storyline but realistically I don't envision that happening.

Another part of me would say to scrap ths movie altogether but again, I also don't see that happening. What I think is more likely to happen would be for an entirely new movie that ditches the Core Four and has a new cast and setting with maybe Courtney Cox's Gale Weathers factoring into the plot but would that work too under the circumstances? Only time will tell.

Either way this was a bad call on Spyglass's part and could very well backfire on them in the long run. 

Scream VII will start filming in early 2024. A release date has yet to be confirmed.