‘I’m Really Grateful the Studio Heard Me’

Neve Campbell has spoken about her return to the Scream franchise after a very public departure from last year’s Scream VI over pay issues. The actress will be returning to the role of Sidney Prescott in Scream VII, but it was not an easy road back to the character she established nearly 30 years ago in 1996’s Scream.

The actress has appeared in all installments of the saga, except for Scream VI, the last entry, which proved to be one of the highest grossing films of the franchise. The intention was for Campbell to return, but things hit a snag when Spyglass Media, who holds the franchise rights, presented the actress with an offer that she felt didn’t match her value to the popular horror series. Campbell declined to return and was pretty vocal about her reasons why. Now, with Scream VII finally taking shape, the actress reveals that Spyglass came through with their offer this time around, and she’s very excited about jumping back into the role of Sidney Prescott.

During a chat with People, Campbell discussed her Scream VII comeback, and she seemed pretty comfortable with the offer they presented this time around, indicating that Spyglass seemed to listen to her grievances with the previous offer for Scream VI.

“I’m really grateful that the studio heard me when I talked about pay discrepancy and when I talked about [Scream VI negotiations] not feeling respectful. It feels nice to have put that out into the world and to have been listened to and to have made a difference in that way. I hope other people get that opportunity too.”

Neve Campbell Has A Lot of Love for Sidney Prescott

For Campbell, her love of the character remains with her, and she’s keenly aware that these films gave her a movie career. It’s one of many reasons she’s happy to get back into the franchise, and it appears that the producers came to her with an offer that was more in line with her expectations.

“I’ve lived with Sidney for 30 years, and I’m really, really grateful to get to go back to it…. When they first approached me [for Scream 7], I thought, ‘I don’t know what respectful looks like to them. We might be in very different places.’ But they started out in a strong place, so that was lovely.”

Scream VII has been on its own bumpy road to development for various reasons. Melissa Barrera, who headlined 2022’s Scream and Scream VI, was fired after sharing posts on Instagram that Spyglass believed promoted rhetoric that “flagrantly crosses the line into hate speech” regarding the Hamas terror attacks. The day after this news went public, Jenna Ortega, who co-starred with Barrera in the aforementioned Scream films and is one of the biggest rising stars of her generation, announced her departure from the franchise citing scheduling conflicts with the second season of Netflix’s Wednesday. All of this came to a head when director Christopher Landon, who was set to replace the directing duo of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillet, also left the project while indicating his dream job had turned into a nightmare.

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Scream fans began to take sides in the matter, steadfastly supporting Barrera following her termination. When Campbell’s return was announced some time later, some thought it indicated that the actress didn’t support what some believed was Barrera’s wrongful termination but, in the months since that announcement, some of that polarizing response has subsided. In addition to Campbell’s return, and the expected return of Courteney Cox and Patrick Dempsey, Scream brainchild Kevin Williamson is also returning in a big way as the film’s new director. Campbell is also very excited that he’s finally getting the chance to helm a Scream project. The actress said, “I’m really excited that Kevin Williamson is going to direct, I think he’s been wanting to do it for years and he deserves it. This is his baby. He’s going to do a phenomenal job.”