SCREAM Star Skeet Ulrich Offers Insight on the Original Plans for Melissa Barrera's Sam in SCREAM 7
Spyglass Media was on a good roll with the fifth and sixth installments of Scream, and there was a seventh film being planned that would continue the story arc for Melissa Barrera's Sam. But that fell apart really fast when Barrera was fired from the film. Jenna Ortega then dropped out, and after that director Christopher Landon left, saying, "It was a dream job that turned into a nightmare."
There’s a new film currently in development, but it’s basically going to have to start from scratch and build a whole new story. There was an endgame plan for Barrera's Sam character, though, and Skeet Ulrich recently shed some light on those original plans.
The the films we learn that Billy Loomis is the father of Sam, and he had a recurring presence in Sam's life as she was descending into murder madness. She seemed to really enjoy brutally stabbing the villains to death. According to Ulrich, the idea was for Sam to finally embrace her inner darkness in Scream 7. In an interview with ScreenRant, he said:
"Exactly that. I was hoping for exactly that, and that's sort of the idea that was pitched to me a couple years ago. That it was a three-movie arc, with that in mind. Now, I never saw any of the drafts of seven or anything that. And I don't know, I mean, it's possible that it didn't include any of that as well. But yeah, that was my hope is that if it was going to mean anything, that it directly impacted the plot."
You could see that that was the direction that Sam’s story arc was going, and it’s one that I would have actually liked to see play out. Barrera previously said: "It could be a very interesting journey as an actor to explore that duality of the character and her embracing a little bit of the dark side. I don’t know. It’s exciting!" But, that story is dead.
As for what is currently being planned, it’s been reported that producers are looking to bring Neve Campbell back as Sydney Prescott and Patrick Dempsey to reprise his role as Mark Kincaid from Scream 3. These actors are on their wish list along with Courteney Cox. They are obviously scrambling and trying to figure out how they can save the franchise after scrapping the current storyline and all of the behind-the-scenes drama.
We’ll just have to wait and see how all of this continues to play out.