Scream fans started celebrating last week when franchise star Neve Campbell revealed that she’s in talks to return once again as Sidney Prescott in Scream 5. The meta horror saga has been dormant on the big screen since 2011’s Scream 4, with legendary director Wes Craven sadly passing away in the meantime, but it’s being resurrected with Ready or Not filmmakers Matt Betinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett set to helm.
Clearly, the plan is to get Campbell back, then, but the actress’ latest comments have warned us that we might want to hold off on the celebrations for now. While speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Campbell noted that for a long time she thought it would “just be too odd to do a movie without Wes,” saying that she felt unsure whether she would want to. However, she started to entertain the idea when the two new directors sent her “this really, really respectful letter.”
“They came to me with Scream 5, and these directors are incredibly talented. They wrote a letter honoring Wes in such a beautiful way, and they expressed that the reason they make horror movies is because of Wes and the Scream films. They also expressed how blown away they are at the idea of actually getting an opportunity to make one of them and how much they want to honor and respect Wes’ vision. It was just beautiful, and I was really grateful.”
That said, Campbell went on to stress that negotiations are still only in the opening stages, so it’s by no means a done deal that she’ll return a fifth time. It’s not even just the discussions that could create a hitch, as the COVID-19 outbreak has thrown the film industry into turmoil.
“I had really thought that the only way I’d step into a new project with new directors is if they really wanted to honor him. So, we’ll see. We’re just in the beginning phases of negotiations, and we’ll have to see where it goes with COVID and everything. There are a lot of things up in the air such as when we’ll actually get to make the movie and how we can even reenter this business at the moment.”
So, it’s all unclear at present, but assuming that Scream 5 is able to go ahead, then it looks like we can be cautiously optimistic that Campbell will be back to face off against Ghostface as Sidney once again. She certainly seems to be impressed with Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett and interested in working with them, so that’s a big plus. No fan wants a Scream movie without Campbell, either, so fingers crossed everything works out.