Yesterday brought the exciting news that David Arquette has signed up to join Scream 5, reprising his role as Woodsboro Sheriff Dewey Riley. He’s the first cast member to officially join the movie, confirming that the film will be a continuation of the first four entries in the meta-horror franchise. There’s an interesting factoid from the original report of Arquette’s casting that has been overlooked, though, which promises more familiar faces are on the way.
In Deadline’s write-up of the story, they note that Spyglass Entertainment reps have informed them that they are currently in talks with more legacy stars to join Arquette in the fifth film. They don’t specify who, but we already know one of them. Neve Campbell has previously revealed that she’s in discussions to come back as Sidney Prescott. She’s yet to sign along the dotted line, but hopefully negotiations go smoothly as it wouldn’t be a Scream movie without Campbell.
The other obvious contender is Courtney Cox, who’s the only other cast member alongside Campbell and Arquette (her real-life ex-husband) who has featured in all four Screams, as bitchy news reporter Gale Weathers. Dewey and Gale were still a married couple in Scream 4, so it’d make sense if she returned for this new one. That’s it for the major stars of the saga, and obviously supporting characters don’t tend to survive these films, but there might be a couple who could return.
First of all, fans want Hayden Panettiere back as Kirby. In Scream 4, the teen horror expert was presumed killed by Ghostface but it wasn’t shown on screen, so there is a chance she survived. And the actress did recently get her old Kirby haircut. Matthew Lillard has also voiced interest in returning as Stu, one of the killers from the first Scream. There’s nothing to say that could happen just yet, but revealing some past villains are still alive could be a fun twist, as well as bringing the whole thing full circle.
Scream 5 is set to start shooting in Wilmington, North Carolina later this year, once the movie industry can safely proceed again.