Jenna Ortega finally addressed her decision to drop off “Scream 7” after he co-star and onscreen sister Melissa Barrera was fired from the project…
Jenna Ortega is one of the busiest actors working in Hollywood today but her schedule had nothing to do with why she dropped out of “Scream 7.”
Back in 2023, plans for “Scream 7” went haywire after Spyglass Media Group decided to fire Melissa Barrera from the sequel over posts she made regarding the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine. Barrera had played Samantha Carpenter in both “Scream 5” and “Scream 6” with Ortega portraying her younger sister Tara in the films.
Following Barrera’s firing, Ortega also dropped off the project and it was reported at the time that scheduling conflicts with production for the upcoming second season of the hit series “Wednesday” for Netflix led to that decision. While there was plenty of skepticism about the timing of that decision, Ortega never actually addressed the entire ordeal until she finally revealed why she actually left “Scream 7” when speaking to The Cut while promoting her new film “Death of a Unicorn.”
“It had nothing to do with pay or scheduling,” Ortega said despite initial reports to the contrary. “The Melissa stuff was happening, and it was all kind of falling apart. If ‘Scream 7’ wasn’t going to be with that team of directors and those people I fell in love with, then it didn’t seem like the right move for me in my career at the time.”
The directing team led by Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin had already exited the film and opted instead to serve as producers on the project with Christopher Landon — best known for his work on the “Happy Death Day” films — was hired as a director. He also eventually dropped off the project and later stated “it was a dream job that turned into a nightmare.”
For a while it appeared that “Scream 7” was deader than the last few Ghostfaces but Spyglass eventually resurrected the sequel with an entirely new plot that included the return of series star Neve Campbell to the franchise after she sat out “Scream 6” over a pay dispute.
Once Campbell signed onto the sequel, original “Scream” screenwriter Kevin Williamson was hired to direct the film with Guy Busick returning to pen the script after he previously wrote both “Scream 5” and “Scream 6.” Additional cast members from past “Scream” films also returned including Courteney Cox, Jasmin Savoy Brown and Mason Gooding.
That obviously didn’t circle back to Ortega, who seemed resolved in her decision to exit the “Scream” franchise and focus on different projects instead.
