At the end of 2023, Spyglass Entertainment announced that they had fired lead star Melissa Barrera from Scream 7 following comments she made on social media about the Israel-Hamas conflict.
The decision was met with a largely negative response from fans of the slasher series, and co-lead Jenna Ortega then also decided to step away from the horror franchise. Director Christopher Landon followed, and in what now promises to be a nostalgia-heavy next chapter, the spotlight has shifted to Neve Campbell's Sidney Prescott and her daughter.
Given the support Barrera received from fans and her fellow actors, her career hasn't suffered too much of a setback since being dropped from Scream 7. In fact, she remains a fan-favourite choice for the role of Wonder Woman in the DCU (the hero is expected to debut in James Gunn's upcoming Superman sequel, Man of Tomorrow).
Doing the rounds to promote Peacock's The Copenhagen Test alongside Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings star Simu Liu, Barrera received her co-star's endorsement to follow Gal Gadot as the new Diana Prince.
"James Gunn or anybody else out there, I think she really pushes herself," Liu started, adding, "There were a couple of moments during stunt training where I was like 'That’s Wonder Woman-esque.' I don’t know who’s watching or listening to this interview, but I just think she’s a total badass."
Liu's comments have quickly spread on social media, and there does appear to be a fair bit of excitement among DC fans surrounding the possibility of Barrera playing the Amazon.
Gunn is no stranger to controversy after resurfaced Tweets from several years earlier led to Disney firing him from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (he was eventually re-hired after widespread backlash), so we can't imagine he'd object to Barrera auditioning. Recently, we got an update on the type of actress the filmmaker is looking for to fill this role.
Last April, Barrera herself weighed in on the Wonder Woman fan-casts. "A friend that told me that. He's on Twitter. I haven't been on Twitter in a really long time, but he told me a year ago or something like that. I was like, 'Oh interesting.' I think it's nice because of what the character represents."
"I think whoever gets the role, I just hope that they can embody the essence of the character because I think that those movies, whether they're Marvel or DC, their reach is so big," she continued. "Those artists who get those roles will inevitably get a built-in fanbase and have the eyes and the ears of so many people."
"I think that it would be nice if they did something actually positive with the influence that they have to at least be a good example of the kind of human being that you wanna be in the world, instead of just using it for self-serving purposes," Barrera concluded.
We'll see what happens, but you can watch our 2022 interview with the Scream franchise alum in the player below.