'Scream 7' Gets Wily Nabbing David Arquette Return As Dewey
Amber stabbed the retired sheriff in the fifth 'Scream', but that doesn’t mean they had to stop shooting him
Seems in this phase of the Scream franchise the Ghostfaces aren’t the only ones killed onscreen allowed to come back, and it seems Courteney Cox has gotten her wish. After being the first casualty of the original survivor party in 25 years in 2022’s fifth installment, David Arquette will reprise his role as retired sheriff Dewey Riley for the Paramount and Spyglass franchise’s seventh film, releasing next year.
While everyone is talking resurrection, that is very likely not the plan. Previously killed characters do make their way back without being brought back to life. While not the first, the first to be in more than a background capacity was Jamie Kennedy’s Randy Meeks, who had his sister Martha (played by Heather Matarazzo) deliver a tape he made before his death that explained the rule of trilogies. Billy Loomis, one of the original Ghostfaces who was played by Skeet Ulrich and the murderer of Dewey’s scarcely-remembered sister Tatum (played by Rose McGowan), appeared in several hallucinations of Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera) across her two film appearances. This is important as Matthew Lillard, who played Stu Macher, Loomis’s accomplice Ghostface, and Scott Foley as Roman Bridger, Sidney’s half-brother and who lit the flame on all the Ghostface sprees, are also set to return for Scream 7. Lillard notably also made minor non-Macher cameos in other previous films in the series.
Former Ghostfaces Scott Foley And Matthew Lillard Returning For 'Scream 7'
Ain’t that a shot in the head? Matthew Lillard, who played Stu Macher, half the original Ghostface team in the 1996 slasher Scream, and Scott Foley, the Felicity star who made his film debut as Roman Bridger in Scream 3, are returning for the now-Paramount/Spyglass franchise’s seventh installment,
In September, before she signed on for the film, Cox, who has played Gale Weathers for every installment, and is Arquette’s ex-wife in and out of their respective characters, said at a Rock4EB charity event that she hoped they’d find a way to get him back “I understand the reasons they did it, but whoa! Talk about a missed character. Dewey is so loved by Scream fans. They have to figure it out.” She probably missed working with him on the sixth film, which was also the first to see Neve Campbell absent as Sidney, but due to a pay dispute.
But indeed, Campbell and Cox are back as Sidney and Gale, and for the first time, Sidney’s family is with her onscreen. Her husband is Mark Evans, played by Joel McHale and one of their children is a daughter played by Isabel May. Jasmin Savoy Brown and Mason Gooding as Randy’s twin niece and nephew Mindy and Chad Meeks-Martin are also returning. Celeste O’Connor, Asa Germann, McKenna Grace, Anna Camp, Sam Rechner, and Ethan Embry still don’t have names for their characters revealed either, though Camp and Rechner are reportedly playing mother and son. Mark Consuelos is by those same sources playing Robbie, a news reporter. Patrick Dempsey, who played Sidney’s love interest Mark Kincaid in Scream 3 recently spoke about how his expected reprisal as Sidney’s now-husband didn’t pan out. “It just didn’t work out and we were dealing with the fires and everything that was going on.” he said.
Being part of the seventh film means Arquette reunites with Kevin Williamson, who of the original four Wes Craven-directed films only missed out on writing the third, and is now directing for the first time in the franchise. Guy Busick, who wrote Scream and Scream VI with James Vanderbilt is going solo this time while Vanderbilt is busy with other commitments. Vanderbilt, representing Project X Entertainment with William Sherak and Paul Neinstein are producing with Radio Silence, the directors of the fifth and sixth installments, serving as executive producers.
Funnily enough, the news of Arquette’s return, however Dewey appears, comes mere days after Mikey Madison, who played Amber Freeman, the Ghostface who killed him in that 2022 Scream, became the first Ghostface actor to win an Academy Award. She won Best Actress for playing stripper Anora Mikheeva in Best Picture winner Anora. Will she be back too? Who knows. Scream 7 will be released in theaters in just under a year on February 27, 2026.
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