{"id":448059,"date":"2026-02-27T06:59:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T06:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/448059\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T06:59:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T06:59:14","slug":"new-scream-forced-into-500k-rewrite-after-lead-actor-fired-over-social-media-posts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/448059\/","title":{"rendered":"New Scream forced into $500k rewrite after lead actor fired over social media posts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviews have begun dropping for the brand-new Scream film and they are, to put it bluntly, pretty terrible.<\/p>\n

Scream 7 comes just four years after 2022\u2019s Scream rebooted the film franchise. Featuring a number of stars before they became household names such as Jenna Ortega<\/a>, Melissa Barrera, and future Oscar<\/a> winner Mikey Madison, the fifth film in the franchise brought Scream to a whole new generation of horror fans.<\/p>\n

The production and release of Scream 7 however has been rife with controversy as it was revealed that production company Spyglass were forced into a rewrite of the film<\/a> which cost them $500,000 after they fired Melissa Barrera.<\/p>\n

\"MelissaMelissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega both exited the film, though Barrera was fired and Ortega quit (Spyglass)<\/p>\n

Barrera was fired from the film after posting on social media about Gaza<\/a> in November of 2023, saying on her Instagram story: \u201cGaza is currently being treated like a concentration camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cCornering everyone together, with nowhere to go, no electricity no water. People have learnt nothing from our histories\u2026 Just like our histories, people are still silently watching it all happen. THIS IS GENOCIDE & ETHNIC CLEANSING.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spyglass released a statement claiming that they have \u2018zero tolerance for antisemitism or the incitement of hate in any form\u2019 and fired Barrera, stating that this includes: \u201cFalse references to genocide, ethnic cleansing, Holocaust distortion or anything that flagrantly crosses the line into hate speech.\u201d<\/p>\n

A United Nations Special Committee<\/a> and Amnesty International has since found that Israel committed a genocide in Gaza.<\/p>\n

\"BarreraBarrera has been outspoken about Palestine (Dia Dipasupil\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

This firing led to rewrites from the studio, in part as it was shortly followed by co-star Jenna Ortega and director Christopher Landon exiting the film.<\/p>\n

It was initially reported that Ortega quit due to scheduling conflicts with Wednesday, but she later told<\/a> The Cut: \u201cIt had nothing to do with pay or scheduling\u2026 It was all kind of falling apart.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Scream 7 wasn\u2019t going to be with that team of directors and those people I fell in love with, then it didn\u2019t seem like the right move for me in my career at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA timeline of Scream 7’s troubled production (Paramount)<\/p>\n

Variety has reported that Ortega and Barrera exiting the film led to a $500,000 rewrite of the script to replace their characters with Neve Campbell\u2019s Sidney Prescott, who has been in every Scream film except the 6th.<\/p>\n

The decision to fire Barrera and replace her with Campbell has led to criticism on social media with 30 Pro-Palestine protestors demonstrating outside the premiere, which took place last night.<\/p>\n

Scream 7\u2019s director Kevin Williamson said in a red-carpet interview: \u201cWe live in America. We have the right to protest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have the right to be heard, and they have a right to speak to what your truth is, and I support that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barrera posted to Instagram seemingly in reference to the protests, saying \u201cI see you,” with a heart emoji.<\/p>\n

The sequel has debuted to a near-franchise-low 47 percent, which has since fallen even further to 41 percent to make it the lowest-rated Scream film.<\/p>\n

\"ScreamScream 7 currently has the lowest Rotten Tomatoes score of the series (LADbible)<\/p>\n

Owen Gleiberman said in his review for Variety: \u201cWilliamson has gone back to basics, but the result is a Scream sequel that, while it nods in the direction of being seductively convoluted, is really just\u2026basic.\u201d<\/p>\n

One fan online who saw the film early called it an \u2018abysmal s**tshow\u2019, adding: \u201cSloppily crafted, soulless and cynical script, and the cast is embarrassingly wooden. Mask off, this is both the worst instalment and the worst movie of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scream 7 is available to watch in cinemas tonight, February 26.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reviews have begun dropping for the brand-new Scream film and they are, to put it bluntly, pretty terrible.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,2332,59,12663,20694,9086,224,14913,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-448059","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-film","10":"tag-gb","11":"tag-horror","12":"tag-jenna-ortega","13":"tag-palestine","14":"tag-social-media","15":"tag-tv-and-film","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}