UPDATE: The trades have now confirmed that Jenna Ortega will not reprise her role as Tara Carpenter in the next Scream movie - but her exit doesn't seem to have anything to do with co-star Melissa Barrera being fired.
According to Deadline, Ortega had decided to leave prior to the strikes due to a scheduling conflict. A script for Scream VII is still not complete, and the actress has to head to Ireland in April to shoot the second season of Netflix’s Wednesday. She also has to return for some additional photography on Tim Burton's Beetlejuice sequel.
The original story follows.
Last night, the news broke that Scream star Melissa Barrera would not be returning for the upcoming seventh instalment in the long-running slasher franchise after being fired from her role for sharing what were deemed to be "anti-Semitic" comments on social media.
The studio released a statement shortly after, explaining why they decided to drop Barrera from the next movie, citing "rhetoric that flagrantly crosses the line into hate speech."
“Spyglass stance is unequivocally clear: We have zero tolerance for antisemitism or the incitement of hate in any form, including false references to genocide, ethnic cleansing, Holocaust distortion or anything that flagrantly crosses the line into hate speech.”
The studio has received a lot of backlash for this, as Barrera's fans (along with many other people) simply don't believe her comments crossed any lines. We had been waiting to see if any of her Scream cast-mates might show their support, and it seems Jenna Ortega, who plays Barrera's on-screen sister Tara, may have been the first to take a stand. Though we're still waiting on confirmation, the Wednesday star is believed to have asked her agency to terminate her contract with the Scream franchise.
Barrera has yet to share a response to her firing, but she did post the following to her Instragram stories.
Will Spyglass now attempt to bring Neve Campbell back into the fold, perhaps? The former star of the franchise decided not to reprise the role of Sidney Prescot for the most recent film, after revealing that she was unhappy with what she was offered to return.
Campbell spoke about watching Scream VI for the first time during a recent appearance at Monster-Mania Con.
“I actually thought they did a really good job. I think the cast are really powerful, wonderful actors. I don’t wish these movies ill will. I wanted the movie to be good. It’s not like I’m sitting in my house going, ‘I hope it sucks, I hope it doesn’t do well.’ I care about all the people involved.”
“There’s someone at the top who only thinks about money and that’s their prerogative,” she added.
What do you make of this whole situation? Have Barrera's comments been blown out of proportion, or do you understand where Spyglass is coming from?