The Scream franchise has been very successful at spawning sequels. The current Scream movie that’s playing in theaters is actually the fifth installment in the franchise. And even though it has some very real closure for the three legacy characters, the directing team of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett recently told CinemaBlend’s ReelBlend podcast that they would be honored to return for Scream 6, and even have gone so far as to think about an idea that would really excite them regarding the challenge of wading back into a horror franchise that comments on horror sequels.
Tyler Gillett told ReelBlend:
We'd be honored to be a part of it. And I think the thing that we've sort of realized with this one – and we knew it to be true, but I think… and certainly as conversation about the movie has started and people are expressing their opinions and debating the themes – I think what we're realizing is that the fun of any of these movies is that you get to use all of it, right? Like, everything that we're experiencing, everything we experienced on this one, everything that is going to happen in its aftermath, it's all part of the fabric of what maybe the next one could be. How do you subvert the thing that's now subverted? It has folded in on itself so many times. And I think for us, that's just exciting. That feels like an opportunity to do something just even more kind of brain breaking.
How would one out-meta an already meta series? Just in case you made it this far into the story and haven’t seen the new Scream, I’ll avoid even hinting at the direction that led screenwriters James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick into the plot of the requel. And over the course of our ReelBlend episode, the guys have even admitted that they made changes to the existing Scream legacy because it didn’t fit cleanly with the story they wanted to tell. So I’m sure there are plenty of things in Scream 2, 3, or 4 that could easily trigger more exploration. And I trust the Radio Silence guys to do it properly.
Even though Matt Bettinelli-Olpin threw in, as a Scream 6 joke:
All on Zoom! Scream 6… Zoom.
For the time being, it’s box office performance and critical response that should be letting Paramount know that there’s an appetite out there for more stories in this universe. Granted, legacy sequels such as Ghostbusters Afterlife, The Matrix Resurrections, and Spider-Man: No Way Home are very popular at the moment, but those examples kind of help prove that it’s harder to pull off a successful “requel” than most would assume. And Scream 2022 worked. It paid homage to the original movies, but also introduced a number of young characters we might want to continue following, even if the beloved original Scream stars decided that this movie was a one and done.
Scream unseated Spider-Man: No Way Home at the box office in its first weekend. We shall see if it can continue its streak heading into another competitive frame.
