Melissa Barrera was established as the new lead actress of the horror series in Scream 5 and 6. Now the actress has been fired for her statements on the Israel-Hamas war
With Scream 5 and Scream 6, the legendary horror series about the Ghostface killer was successfully revived in recent years after a long break. Both films grossed well over 100 million US dollars at the box office. Work on the next sequel, Scream 7, was therefore quickly decided.
As reported by the Hollywood Reporter in agreement with other industry sites, Melissa Barrera will not be returning as Sam Carpenter in the new film. The reason for this are controversial social media posts about the Israel-Hamas war, which the actress has shared on her Instagram profile in recent weeks. Wednesday star Jenna Ortega is also leaving Scream 7 for a different reason
Melissa Barrera fired from horror sequel: Scream 7 is coming without the leading actress from parts 5 and 6
The Hollywood Reporter report cites a social media post from Barrera:
Gaza is currently being treated like a concentration camp. Corralling everyone together with nowhere to go, no electricity, no water… People have learned nothing from our history. And just like in our history, people are still silently watching it all happen. This is genocide and ethnic cleansing.
(Melissa Barrera as Sam Carpenter in Scream)
After Barrera’s firing was announced on Tuesday night, Spyglass, the production studio behind the new Scream films, released a statement:
Spyglass’ stance is clear: We have zero tolerance for anti-Semitism or incitement to hatred in any form, including false references to genocide, ethnic cleansing, Holocaust falsification or anything that blatantly crosses the line into hate speech.
Scream 7 director Christopher Landon (Freaky) posted a statement on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), which he has since deleted. The Hollywood Reporter captured the message of his tweet:
This is my statement: everything sucks. Stop screaming. That was not my decision.
Barrera was established as the new face of the horror series in Scream 5 and 6 along with Wednesday star Jenna Ortega. She previously appeared in the Netflix series Club de Cuervos and Vida. She celebrated her breakthrough on the big screen in 2021 with the musical adaptation In the Heights, which was followed by Scream.
