Scream 5 will see Quaid joined by confirmed returning cast members in David Arquette and Courtney Cox, who reprise their film-franchise-spanning roles as Sheriff Dewey Riley and reporter Gail Weathers, respectively, with rumors still swirling that Neve Campbell will also be back as frequently-targeted original protagonist Sidney Prescott. However, he won’t be alone in the franchise newcomer department, with Melissa Barrera (Vida, In the Heights) and Jenna Ortega (You, Jane the Virgin) also set to field roles here. Indeed, Quaid—as the presumed star—will trade his onscreen battles against power-corrupted “Supes” for a psychological game of cat and mouse with a new iteration of the Scream franchise’s signature Ghostface killer…unless—in a twist typical of the franchise—he actually turns out to be said killer. We’ll have to wait and see on that one.
Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett, better known as members of the creative collective called Radio Silence, occupy the director chairs for Scream 5, attempting to live up to a lofty legacy set from the late horror mastermind, Wes Craven, who passed away back in 2015. The task will have Radio Silence working off a script by James Vanderbilt (The Amazing Spider-Man) and Guy Busick (Ready or Not), joined by a producer in Kevin Williamson, who wrote the franchise’s groundbreaking 1996 original film, maintaining a legacy presence here.
Of course, there’s quite a legacy for the filmmakers—and Quaid if he’s fielding a central role here—for Scream 5 to tackle; a legacy that collectively grossed $608 million worldwide starting with Craven’s directorial turn on the 1996 original and sequels in 1997’s Scream 2, 2000’s Scream 3 and 2011’s Scream 4, not to mention the abruptly cut-short 2015-2019 MTV television series. However, Radio Silence come into the film off fresh acclaim from the 2019 horror hit, Ready or Not, possibly looking to change the horror genre game in a new kind of self-reflecting manner as Craven had originally accomplished.
