‘Scream VI’ Trailer: Hayden Panettiere Is Back as Ghostface Skewers the Big Apple
Samantha Bergeson
Ghostface is ready to take a bite (literally) out of the Big Apple.
“Scream VI” marks the first film sans Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott. Directed by Radio Silence’s Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, the sixth franchise installment sees returning “Scream 5” stars Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown), Chad (Mason Gooding), and Tara (Jenna Ortega) attending college, with Tara’s half-sister Sam (Melissa Barrera) also moving to New York to protect her. The script is penned by “Scream 5” co-screenwriters James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick.
“At the top of the film we see my character Tara avoiding her trauma and desperately trying to reclaim her teenage experience and become normal college student,” Ortega told Entertainment Weekly. “There’s a lot of tension between her and Sam, she feels as though she’s too protective and unwilling to allow them both to move on. She feels suffocated.”
Well, Ghostface could make that feeling a reality as “Scream VI” also ushers in a whole new crop of suspects. Dermot Mulroney makes his franchise debut as a police officer, while Samara Weaving and Tony Revolori are also fresh faces. “Scream 4” alum Hayden Panettiere is back as wise-cracking cinephile Kirby, with original star Courteney Cox returning as reporter Gale Weathers. Rumors have swirled that “Scream” alum Matthew Lillard, who played one-half of the original Ghostface murderer in the 1996 film alongside Skeet Ulrich, will appear in some capacity despite his character’s perceived death.
“Bringing Ghostface to New York adds an entirely new element to the story,” Cox told EW. “Taking the character out of a small town and putting them in the heart of the city that never sleeps is more terrifying than ever.”
As (supposed) new final girl Ortega said, the “Scream” franchise “just gets more and more gory” with Ghostface the most “violent” audiences have ever seen.
Longtime “Scream” star Campbell announced in June 2022 that she was exiting the franchise after almost 30 years as Sidney Prescott. “I did not feel that what I was being offered equated to the value that I bring to this franchise, and have brought to this franchise, for 25 years,” Campbell said of the salary dispute that led to her exit. “As a woman in this business, I think it’s really important for us to be valued and to fight to be valued. I honestly don’t believe that if I were a man and had done five installments of a huge blockbuster franchise over 25 years, that the number that I was offered would be the number that would be offered to a man.”
Campbell has appeared in all five “Scream” films since the first, directed by Wes Craven, was released in 1996. All in all, the franchise has grossed over $744 million at the box office.
“Scream 6” premieres in theaters March 10.
Check out the trailer below.
