If there’s one ritual as sacred as a landline ringing in Woodsboro, it’s Entertainment Tonight visiting the set of a Scream film.
From Lisa Canning in 1996, to Nancy O’Dell (both of whom even cameoed in the films they covered), to now Kevin Frazier stepping into Pine Grove — the ET set visit has become a franchise tradition. And yesterday, Scream 7 embraced that legacy in full.
The segment featured behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with nearly the entire ensemble: Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Joel McHale, Mason Gooding, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Mckenna Grace, Sam Rechner, Isabel May, Celeste O’Connor, and Asa Germann — a cast spanning generations of Ghostface trauma.
Tatum Riley. Tatum Evans.
The ET segment addressed the homage of Sidney’s teenage daughter (Isabel May) being named Tatum — a direct homage to Rose McGowan’s beloved character from the original film. When Kevin Frazier called it an Easter egg, Neve Campbell responded with the kind of quiet conviction only Sidney Prescott could carry:
“Wasn’t that beautiful? … That character is beloved and missed. It makes sense that Sidney would name her daughter Tatum.”
Also, as a blast from the past, Tatum Evans will wear Sidney’s jacket from Scream 2 in Scream 7.
Neve explained:
“It brings back a lot of memories… It catches her in the moment. It definitely catches her in the moment, and it brings up her fears.”
The franchise has always weaponized memory — but here, it weaponizes inheritance.
Courteney Cox on Dewey (and the ghost that lingers)
Still on bittersweet memories, when asked about Dewey — portrayed by her ex-husband David Arquette — Courteney Cox delivered what felt like a soft ache wrapped in admiration:
“I think Dewey is one of the greatest characters of any horror film… such innocence… smart but really goofy. I think it would be great to have him back in any form.”
Scream 8?
When asked by ET if there would be an eighth installment, Neve answered simply:
“Hopefully. Let’s see how audiences like it.”
Kevin was less coy at the Meta event:
“There’s a couple [kill ideas] that’ll be in the next one.”
The graveyard remains open.
Scream goes live — 1.2 million viewers on TikTok
Also last night, the original 1996 Scream streamed live on TikTok— complete with commentary from Neve Campbell, Kevin Williamson, and Isabel May.
The livestream generated over 1.2 million likes, a strong engagement signal for a franchise now three decades deep. Viewer peaks reportedly hovered around 4–5K at any given moment, but cumulative reach extended far beyond that — with fans tuning in and out throughout the broadcast.
During the stream, Kevin dropped a delightfully macabre bit of trivia:
“The crew had to literally nail Tatum’s shirt to the garage door so she wouldn’t slip out of it.”
To which Neve laughed:
“Jeez, that’s dark. We just left her for lunch. Bye, Rose.”
Meta Reflections
During the recent Meta event with Kevin Williamson, Neve Campbell, and Isabel May, something quietly profound happened: the franchise briefly folded back onto itself. Kevin revealed that in 1996, Wes Craven almost pulled back on the meta edge. Specifically, the now-iconic “Wes Carpenter” line — a wink to horror’s lineage — made him uneasy.
“He wanted to drop the ‘Wes Carpenter’ line. He was like, this is just too much. And I said, no, it’s funny. You don’t want to drop it.”
The responsibility of playing Sidney Prescott
Neve spoke with visible gravity about the unexpected cultural responsibility of playing Sidney Prescott:
“People come up to me and say, ‘I was bullied,’ or ‘I was going through a hard time, and Sidney saved me.’ You don’t expect that when you’re making a film.”
And then Kevin dropped a gem that reframes the evolution of Sidney entirely. When shaping Scream 3, before he stepped away from the project, Kevin met with Neve to figure out who Sidney would become.
He recalled:
“It’s just that there is grief, trauma, loss, all of those things are big things in horror. And particularly this one where we have a lot of mama trauma with Tatum (Evans) and her mother. And, you know, speaking to you about this character, do you remember Scream 3 before I left? I’d met at your house and you said, we’re going to sit in Scream 3. And you were very clear. ‘I think Sidney would help people. I think she would be an advocate for other patients’. And that’s how we made you the hotline. And then from there, we took on the book ‘Out of Darkness’ (Scream 4) that you wrote, which you became Sidney Prescott. So you had a big voice in all of that. And because, you know, we didn’t have a clue what to do.”
Creative Kills
Kevin spoke about rebuilding the Macher house for the third time and how certain images haunt him while standing inside it.
“Every time we built that set… I’d look at that chandelier. I’d think, why does it feel like something should happen with that chandelier? So we did.”
The scene, of course, is already featured in the teaser trailer and TV spots:
The star of the sequence, Michelle Randolph, appeared on The Today Show, and revealed how she trained for all that screaming on screen:
“Well, I didn’t want to scream for the first time on camera. And so I’m like, what do I sound like when I’m screaming for my life? Thank God I don’t know. And so I was, do I take a boat into the middle of the ocean? Like how — I’m not alone. Also scary to think like, wow, we’re never that far from other people. So I did it on the 405 freeway in my car.”
Matthew Lillard: hope and nerves
Speaking with reporter Courtney Tezeno, Matthew Lillard admitted his return carries pressure:
“It’s a little intimidating… My hope is that I am not the one that finally kills the Scream franchise.”
And then, the fan-fear:
“There’s a chance people hate Stu… think I ruined the film.”
Only in this franchise could resurrection feel existential.
Breaking records before release
According to Deadline, Scream 7 is tracking toward a mid-$30 million domestic opening weekend, potentially becoming the second-highest opening in franchise history — behind Scream VI. And Fandango confirmed something even more immediate:
Scream 7 set a franchise record for first-day ticket pre-sales.
And if opening weekend tracking is any indication, Ghostface isn’t done dialing. On February 27, answer the call.
