When the news broke that filmmaker Christopher Landon would direct Scream VII, the response from the franchise's fans was positive. He'd previously balanced horror and comedy with movies like Happy Death Day and Freaky, and delivered big scares with his work on the Paranormal Activity series.
However, when the Scream franchise's new lead, Melissa Barrera, was fired for sharing her thoughts on the Israel-Hamas war on social media, the project started to fall apart. Jenna Ortega also walked away, with Landon not too far behind them.
"Scream was a very dark and tumultuous experience," Landon told Vanity Fair while reflecting on what proved to be a difficult time for him. "I was gobsmacked and in shock for a while, but I’m at a place now where I can talk about it ’cause I was able to use that unpleasant experience and turn it into something positive. And that was Drop."
When Spyglass Media Group told Landon that they had fired Barrera, his vision for Scream VII "all came tumbling down in an instant. It was devastating to suddenly cancel everything."
The Scream franchise had lost its two leads, resulting in fans quickly turning on Landon as they looked to pin the blame on someone.
"People were threatening to kill me and my family, to the point where the FBI was getting involved," he recalled. "I got messages saying, 'I’m going to find your kids, and I’m going to kill them because you support child murder.' The head of security at various studios and the FBI had to examine the threats. It was highly aggressive and really scary."
Setting the record straight, Landon stated, "I did not fire [Barrera]. A lot of people think I had something to do with it, and it was not my doing. I had no control of the situation at all. I think in the absence of people understanding how Hollywood works and what the hierarchy is, the fans were like, 'That’s the guy.' And so they came for me, knives out."
The filmmaker was offered the chance to "restart" Scream with a new version of the movie, but the abuse and threats proved too much, and he decided it simply wasn't worth it. "I would rather put my efforts into something else, where I could feel appreciated and respected. The hate and abuse really spoiled it for me, and I lost my love for the idea of going forward," Landon admitted.
"In the midst of all the chaos, I was grieving the loss of one of my dream jobs. I went through all the stages - I was shocked, I was sad, and then I got angry. To be a part of this legacy, it was really hard to let it go."
The studio convinced Kevin Williamson to return to Scream for this seventh instalment and tapped original cast members Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, and Matthew Lillard to go some way in making up for the absence of Barrera and Ortega.
Landon has no hard feelings on that front and concluded, "I want Scream to succeed. Kevin probably made a banger of a movie, because he knows it better than anybody. It’s going to be awesome."
These comments come just days after Ortega revealed that she didn't leave Scream VII because of either pay or scheduling issues. "It was all kind of falling apart," the actress noted. "If Scream VII wasn’t going to be with that team of directors and those people I fell in love with, then it didn’t seem like the right move for me in my career at the time."
Scream VII is set to be released in theaters on February 27, 2026.