After her contentious departure from the Scream film series, Melissa Barrera, a former star of the franchise, recently shared that she is ready to move on. With her sights set on bigger career goals, the actress considers her departure to have been a minor “hiccup”.
In an interview with Collider, Barrera discussed her goals for the future after her tenure in the Scream franchise late last year. Barrera considers it to be a huge deal, given the numerous challenges he has encountered in the industry this year.
The sixth Scream movie, which is co-directed by Tyler Gillet and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, follows Sam and Jenna Ortega as they pursue Ghostface through New York City. As a result of the movie’s box office success, Scream 7’s development was confirmed. It seems that fans have seen the last of Barrera’s character, though, as her social media posts regarding the Israel-Hamas conflict led to her termination from the forthcoming movie.
Melissa Barrera’s Ambitious Career Roadmap After Exiting Scream 7
Having spent over a decade developing her career, Melissa Barrera, 33, is ready to put her past behind her and focus on her future. In an interview with Collider, the actress opened up about her plans for the future, particularly in light of her departure from the Scream franchise towards the end of last year.
For those unaware, Barrera’s pro-Palestinian stance on social media led to a severance of ties between her and Spyglass Media, the studio behind the Scream franchise. The actress stood by her convictions and supported herself in a subsequent post, which was a commendable decision.
Barrera is already making significant progress, as evidenced by her upcoming celebration of her most recent project, Abigail, a horror film in which she reunites with Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, the directors of Scream (2022) and Scream VI.
She discussed her goals for the future and what she hopes to achieve after her tenure in the Scream franchise with Collider. Barrera claimed that, in addition to her dreams of landing significant on-screen roles, she also wants to produce more work and pursue her ambition of working behind the camera:
“I wanna produce, I wanna direct, so there’s so much that I can busy myself with. Focusing on something that happened and that already happened and it’s not … It’s nothing … There are more important things that are happening in the world and that’s, you know, that was just a little hiccup. I’m good.”
Barrera, who reconnected with the directors of the Scream franchise for the horror flick Abigail, declined to allow Scream to serve as the pinnacle of a bright acting future. Barrera is determined to pursue her dream roles and feels that she is
“Here to stay. Just continuing to put myself out there. Unafraid. Because I’m here to stay. So just continuing to audition — I still have a lot of things that I wanna do.”
She said she has a “lot of dreams” to fulfill, one of which is to make a variety of films.
How the Absence of Melissa Barrera’s Character Arc Plays out in Scream 7
The sixth movie in the series maintained its box office success after 2022’s Scream effectively functioned as a soft reboot. Despite the fact that Sam (Melissa Barrera) and Tara (Jenna Ortega) have truly taken on a new role as the franchise’s faces, they will not be coming back.
In an Instagram post, Neve Campbell formally announced that she will be playing the role of Sidney Prescott, the protagonist of the original franchise, in the next film. Furthermore, rumors have it that Courteney Cox is in negotiations to reprise her role as Gale Weathers, another iconic character.
Other Scream 6 cast members like Jasmin Savoy Brown and Mason Gooding might skip the upcoming flick as a result of Sam and Tara’s decision not to return. Scream 7 may wind up feeling more like one of the first four movies because the original characters will be back in the spotlight.
After Campbell opted not to appear in Scream 6 due to a pay dispute, Cox’s Gale provided a nearly one-line explanation for Sidney’s absence—that is, that she had taken her family to a safe place. Perhaps Sam and Tara will move to a new part of the country to start over in the next film, which could offer a similar explanation for their absences.
With Scream 6’s success (Box Office Mozo), it will be interesting to see how the next sequel performs.
You can rent Scream VI on Apple TV.
