Scream VII has lost another leading lady.
Jenna Ortega, who played a starring role in the previous two Scream movies, will no longer appear in the seventh installment of the slasher franchise. According to Deadline Hollywood, which first reported the news, Ortega’s exit is due to a scheduling conflict with the second season of her Netflix series Wednesday and was discussed months ago, before the recently resolved actors’ strike.
Spyglass Media Group, which produces the Scream movies, declined to comment. Representatives for Ortega didn’t immediately respond to EW’s request for comment.
News of Ortega’s departure comes a day after word that Melissa Barrera, who played Ortega’s onscreen sister, was fired from Scream VII over a series of social media posts about the Israel-Hamas war that Spyglass deemed “hate speech.”
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
Ortega and Barrera starred as sisters Tara and Sam Carpenter in 2022’s Scream and this year’s Scream VI, helping inject new life into the long-running horror franchise. Scream VI earned $108 million at the domestic box office and another $60 million in international territories.
Scream VII is being directed by Happy Death Day and Freaky filmmaker Christopher Landon, who appeared to address Barrera’s firing on social media. “This is my statement,” he wrote Tuesday. “Everything sucks. Stop yelling. This was not my decision to make.” The post was deleted soon after.
The Scream series has lost stars before. Most recently, franchise mainstay Neve Campbell did not return for Scream VI due to a salary dispute.
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