Skeet Ulrich Sets the Record Straight: He Won’t Be in Scream 7

Here is the latest twist in the long, messy road to Scream 7: Skeet Ulrich says he is not in the movie anymore. If you have been following the behind-the-scenes saga on this one, that tracks. If you haven’t, buckle up.

How Scream 7 got rebooted midstream

The first version of Scream 7 was going to continue what 2022’s Scream and Scream VI set up, with Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega front and center and Christopher Landon (Freaky, Happy Death Day) directing. Then the wheels came off.

According to reports, Ortega pushed for a big pay bump. That was already a sensitive topic after Neve Campbell walked away from Scream VI over pay. Not long after, Spyglass fired Barrera over social media posts about the Israel-Hamas war that did not sit well with the company. Landon exited soon after that. So the whole thing got reworked from the ground up.

Now, Scream 7 is a different movie: Neve Campbell is back in the lead as Sidney Prescott, Kevin Williamson (who wrote the original Scream) is directing, and the script is by Guy Busick, with the story by Busick and his Scream 5 and 6 co-writer James Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt is also producing again.

So where does Skeet Ulrich fit into this?

He doesn’t. Ulrich’s Billy Loomis died in the first film, but the last two movies used the character in a clever way — Billy showed up as hallucinations in the mind of Barrera’s character, Sam Carpenter, because he was her dad. The plan, Ulrich says, was for that to continue through Scream 7 as part of a three-movie arc. Once Barrera was out, so was that device.

"I’m not involved. I’m really excited though. I’m excited for Kevin Williamson to take the helm and to see what the mastermind of it all comes up with. I used to know [what the movie was about], because part of coming back for five and six was being a part of seven. It was a three-picture arc for Billy Loomis, or the imagination of Billy Loomis in Melissa Barrera’s character’s head. But when all that went down with her, obviously you lose her and you lose what’s in her head. I used to know what the seventh was going to be and it was really, really interesting. Now I have no clue."

That is Ulrich talking to the New York Post. In short: different lead, different hook, different seventh movie.

Who is actually in Scream 7 now

• Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott, back in the lead
• Courteney Cox returning as Gale Weathers
• Mason Gooding as Chad Meeks-Martin
• Jasmin Savoy Brown as Mindy Meeks-Martin
• Isabel May (1883) playing Sidney’s daughter, Tatum — yes, that name is a choice
• Joel McHale (Community) as Sidney’s husband, Mark Evans
• Mckenna Grace (Ghostbusters), Celeste O’Connor (Ghostbusters), Asa Germann (Gen V), Sam Rechner (The Fabelmans), Anna Camp (Pitch Perfect), Mark Consuelos (Riverdale), and Ethan Embry (The Devil’s Candy)
• Matthew Lillard (Stu Macher) and Scott Foley (Roman Bridger) — both previous Ghostface killers who were very much dead last time we saw them
• David Arquette as Dewey, who also died in Scream 5

The wild part

Lillard, Foley, and Arquette are all listed despite their characters being dead, which raises eyebrows. Ulrich says he hasn’t been told how Lillard factors in this time: he has "no idea" and is kind of looking forward to being surprised. Fun bit of trivia: Ulrich and Lillard, who were the original film’s killers, also appear together in Five Nights at Freddy’s 2.

One more note on the Woodsboro friend group: the new movie keeps half of the so-called core four — Gooding and Brown are back — while Barrera and Ortega are no longer part of the current plan.

Scream 7 hits theaters on February 27, 2026.