SCREAM 7 Almost Brought Back Stu Macher for Real in a Deleted Ending, Says Matthew Lillard: “Yeah, We Shot It”
One of the biggest talking points surrounding Scream 7 was the return of Matthew Lillard to the franchise. For years, fans have debated whether Stu Macher somehow survived the events of the original Scream, and as we previously learned, the sequel nearly added even more fuel to that fire.
While Scream 7 ultimately used AI deepfakes of Stu as part of its story, there was apparently a version of the film that would have teased something much bigger. Lillard confirmed that an alternate ending was filmed that suggested Stu was actually alive.
Speaking during a panel at FAN EXPO Denver, Lillard explained that he pitched the idea directly to franchise creator Kevin Williamson after feeling the movie had spent too much time hinting at Stu's survival without delivering any payoff.
“[I told Kevin Williamson], we spent the entire movie proving that Stu is alive, and then if he doesn’t come out that door people are going to be bummed. So, what we should do, is we should shoot a post-credit sequence where it’s just Stu watching TV somewhere, alive. Yeah, we shot it.
“I will say, when they showed it [to test audiences], they showed it without credits. So, they go to the end and then they show me in a reflection watching TV, and it didn’t work…So, it didn’t work because they didn’t test it right, but I think it would have been completely [different with the credits].”
That revelation is sure to frustrate some longtime fans who have spent decades crafting theories about Stu's fate. Had the scene remained in the final cut, it would have finally given those supporters the confirmation they had been waiting for since 1996.
Instead, Scream 7 took a different route. The film's villains used AI technology to recreate Stu Macher as part of a psychological campaign against Neve Campbell's Sidney Prescott, keeping the character present in the story without officially resurrecting him.
Whether Lillard is right about the deleted scene landing better after a traditional credits sequence is something fans can debate. Either way, the fact that the scene was actually filmed is a fascinating glimpse at an alternate version of the movie that almost made it to theaters.
Despite generating plenty of conversation, Scream 7 received the lowest Rotten Tomatoes score of the franchise. The movie still proved to be a major commercial success, earning more than $207 million worldwide and becoming the highest-grossing installment in the long-running horror series.
The future of the franchise is already taking shape as Scream 8 is currently in development. Whether Stu Macher's story is truly finished remains anyone's guess, but after learning that Lillard filmed a scene confirming the character survived, fans now have one more reason to keep that decades-old theory alive.
Scream 7 is currently streaming on Paramount+.