Neve Campbell Quitting Scream Franchise
She's had enough.
For the better part of 60 years, one thing has remained a constant: scream queens have always been a hit for horror film franchises. Whether it’s Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode in Halloween, Janet Leigh taking on Norman Bates in Psycho, or Sarah Michelle Gellar in I Know What You Did Last Summer and The Grudge films, scream queens often lead audiences into a horror movie with intrigue and ingenuity. One of the most famous scream queens to come out of this era of slasher flicks, Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott in the Scream franchise, may have stabbed her last ghostface for good.
As reported by comicbook.com, Neve Campbell is not returning to the Scream films for the foreseeable future. For the first time in its series of films, Scream will not have Sidney Prescott to lean on for its own version of the metaverse. According to Campbell herself, the decision was not an easy one to make, and it apparently came down to money. According to Deadline, Campbell stated about the upcoming Scream 6, “I felt the offer that was presented to me did not equate to the value I have brought to the franchise.” It seems that the filmmakers did not meet Campbell’s demands for the sequel, so she is dropping out of the franchise altogether.
Since the first Scream was released in theaters in 1996, the series of films have been a success at the box office. In total, the five films under the Scream umbrella have grossed over $744 million, all of which have starred original cast members Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, and David Arquette. With the death of Arquette’s character Dewey Riley in the fifth installment of the franchise, there had been rumors that Campbell and Cox would not return in future films. However, Cox confirmed to Variety recently that she will in fact be back for Scream 6.
With Courteney Cox as the lone survivor of the Scream franchise, fans are most likely going to wonder what the filmmakers will do with Neve Campbell’s character of Sidney Prescott in future installments. Since this will be the first film to not feature the character, it will be interesting to see where the storylines, and the killer reveals, go from here. Most of the Scream films have had ties to Sidney Prescott in some way, whether it was her killer half-brother (Scott Foley) in Scream 3 or her cousin (Emma Roberts) as one of the eventual ghostface killers in Scream 4.
As for Neve Campbell, her success continues by capitalizing on her worth as an actor. Not slowing down due to pay disputes on long-running franchises, Campbell is staying strong on television. She can currently be seen playing opposite Manuel Garcia-Rulfo in David E. Kelley’s The Lincoln Lawyer, an episodic television adaptation of the film of the same name on Netflix. The Lincoln Lawyer has become a hit for the subscription streamer, after Campbell started off 2022 in the fifth installment of Scream. The Canadian-born actor is also currently in pre-production on an action comedy series called Twisted Metal, which will additionally feature Will Arnett, Thomas Haden Church, Anthony Mackie, and Stephanie Beatriz.
