Nearly three years after her firing over pro-Palestinian posts, the actress says she'd play Sam Carpenter again, just not under the studio that let her go.
Melissa Barrera hasn't closed the door on Scream. She's just locked Spyglass Media out of the room.
The actress, fired from the franchise in November 2023 after posting about the Israel-Hamas war, addressed a possible comeback in a recent appearance on JustWatch, and her answer was specific enough to end months of fan speculation without quite killing it. "Not with the company that currently holds the rights," she said, when asked if she'd return as Sam Carpenter. "I love the franchise. I had an amazing time making those movies."
Her objection isn't to Scream. It's to how Spyglass handled her exit. Barrera has said the label attached to her, that her posts amounted to antisemitism, was never walked back by the company's leadership, "even when I was proven right," in her words. Spyglass, for its part, said at the time it had "zero tolerance for antisemitism or the incitement of hate in any form," a position it hasn't publicly revisited since, per TheWrap.
An apology at this point wouldn't move her either. "Even with an apology, I wouldn't go back to work with them," Barrera said, adding that she doesn't expect one anyway. "But if the franchise were ever to leave those hands and go into hands that I think honor Wes Craven's legacy more, I think yeah."
The fallout that followed her exit
Barrera's firing didn't stay contained to her. Jenna Ortega, who played her onscreen sister Tara, exited soon after, later saying the sequel was falling apart without her co-star anchoring the story. Director Christopher Landon dropped out too, telling Vanity Fair he'd received messages threatening his kids over the decision, which he called "highly aggressive and really scary."
The franchise recovered by going backward. Neve Campbell, who'd sat out Scream VI over pay, returned as Sidney Prescott for Scream 7, with original series writer Kevin Williamson stepping into the director's chair. Matthew Lillard also came back, playing a version of Stu Macher, though he's since said he regrets not thinking harder about Barrera before signing on. "I'm on the wrong side of history for that," he told JoBlo.
Scream 7 opened this year to the worst reviews the franchise has ever collected, and to Free Palestine protesters outside its Paramount premiere. None of that stopped it from making money. Deadline puts the worldwide gross at $214 million, JoBlo says $213 million, but either way it's the biggest number a Scream film has ever posted. Scream 8 is reportedly already in motion.
So the franchise is fine, commercially. What it doesn't have is Barrera, and by her account, it won't until Spyglass isn't the one signing the checks. Rights deals in Hollywood don't move on fan campaigns, but Ghostface has never been shy about a sequel nobody asked for.
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