Scream lead Melissa Barrera was fired from the hit slasher franchise last year after sharing social media posts supporting Palestine in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
Fans didn't take the news at all well and the project quickly fell apart, with Wednesday star Jenna Ortega also choosing to walk away from the upcoming seventh instalment. It's been widely reported that a pay dispute was the main issue for her, though rumour has it Ortega may have also left the movie as a means of showing solidarity with Barrera.
Either way, without its two leads, it was clear Scream 7 couldn't be made in its current form. Ultimately, even director Christopher Landon chose to exit the project, saying his decision came down to the fact that "it was a dream job that turned into a nightmare."
Spyglass is now attempting to woo back original star Neve Campbell, but will Scream 4 and Scream 6 star Hayden Panettiere show up as FBI Agent Kirby Reed again?
In a new interview with The Messenger (via FearHQ.com), Panettiere stopped sort of commenting on her future with Scream but made it clear she stands with Barrera (for context, her posts referred to the violence occurring in Gaza as "genocide" and "ethnic cleansing," sentiments which have been echoed by many actors in recent months).
Describing her co-star's firing as "very unfair and upsetting," Panettiere added, "After she [spoke out], then a whole bunch of other actors and people in the industry started to do the same thing, right? It was almost like she just did it earlier than everyone else."
"You know, a lot of people hadn't really asked her how she felt," the Heroes star continued, revealing she reached out to her and is "not worried" about the actress. "Melissa is such a badass as a human being and as an actress. She was hurt by it, but I think she took it in stride and was very, very gracious about it."
Scream 6 set the stage for Barrera's character to finally break with reality and become Ghostface, but short of Spyglass majorly changing course and publicly apologising to her for essentially describing her as an anti-semite, we don't see that story ever being told.
"I’m just so grateful for what I got to infuse in the franchise, and that’s something I’ll be proud of forever," Barrera recently said of her Scream exit. Asked how she feels about the support her co-stars have given her, she noted, "We’re family for life. If we’re ever in the vicinity of each other, we always find each other and that’s what happened at that event [the MPTF’s 17th Annual Evening Before Gala]."
"When we find each other, we just want to spend the night with each other, and nothing is ever going to change that."
Scream 7 does not have a confirmed release date.