Melissa Barrera indicated she was open to returning to the “Scream” franchise nearly three years after being fired for her pro-Palestinian social media posts. However, she made it clear she had one big caveat for that return to ever be possible.
“Not with the company [Spyglass] that currently holds the rights,” Barrera, who starred as Samantha Carpenter in 2022’s “Scream” and 2023’s “Scream VI,” said on a recent “Just Watch” appearance.
“I love the franchise. I had an amazing time making those movies,” she continued. “But a lot of the hate and the difficulty that I’ve faced in the last years is because the leadership of that company made it a point to label me something that I’m not, and they never apologized, even when I was proven right.”
Barrera then clarified that even if Spyglass did apologize she “wouldn’t go back to work with them.”
“So, not that I’m holding my breath. I don’t think they have that ability,” she added. “But if the franchise were ever to leave those hands and go into hands that I think honor Wes Craven’s legacy more, I think yeah.”
Watch her comments below. A representative for Spyglass did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
As we previously reported, Spyglass fired Barrera back in November 2023, after the actress shared social media posts amid the Israel-Hamas conflict. In her posts, she called out “atrocities being committed against Palestinians” and compared Gaza to a “concentration camp” in one deleted post.
In response, a Spyglass spokesperson told media, “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.”
Barrera’s onscreen sister Jenna Ortega then exited the horror franchise, noting in a later comment that the follow-up film was “kind of falling apart” without her former co-star. Director Christopher Landon soon followed suit, noting to Vanity Fair in 2005, “I got messages saying, ‘I’m going to find your kids, and I’m going to kill them because you support child murder.’ … It was highly aggressive and really scary.”
In order to fill the “final girl” gap for 2026’s “Scream 7,” Neve Campbell returned to the franchise after previously skipping out on 2023’s “Scream VI” due to a low salary offer. Despite the controversy, the film, which was written and directed by original “Scream” screenwriter Kevin Williamson, made $214 million at the box office.
