It’s been a while since we’ve heard any news on Scream, the upcoming fifth installment in the long-running horror franchise. Obviously, that’s not really much of a surprise as the movie isn’t set to premiere for another ten months, but the cast and crew were giving interviews all over the place just a few months ago when production was in full swing.
There’s a long wait between filming having wrapped in November 2020 and the final product hitting the big screen in January 2022, but expectations are high for Scream nonetheless. A lot of horror properties run out of steam by the time they get to the fifth outing, but the first four movies always maintained a consistent level of quality with the late Wes Craven at the helm, and directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett more than proved that they’re capable of wringing fresh ideas out of a tired concept in Ready or Not.
Plot details about the self-aware slasher remain under lock and key for now, but we’ve heard from our sources this week – the same ones who told us the film was happening in the first place, long before it was confirmed by the studio – that the plan is to strike the balance between legacy sequel and soft reboot, with future Scream movies set to pivot away from having Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott in the lead role and focus on a new main character.
That doesn’t mean she’s going to be killed off before the credits roll on Scream, although it definitely can’t be ruled out, but it could signal that some of the fresh faces played by the likes of Melissa Barrera, Jenna Ortega, Jack Quaid and Dylan Minnette might end up being more than simply cannon fodder for Ghostface’s latest murder spree, even if the body count is still guaranteed to be high.