Does the new sequel mention Sam and Tara Carpenter?

How Scream 7 handles Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega’s franchise exits

Does the new sequel mention Sam and Tara Carpenter?

By Nick Romano

Nick Romano is a senior editor at ** with 15 years of journalism experience covering entertainment. His work previously appeared in *Vanity Fair*, Vulture, IGN, and more.

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February 27, 2026 12:00 p.m. ET

Jenna Ortega and Melissa Barrera in 'Scream VI'. Credit:

Philippe Bosse / Paramount Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection

**This article contains spoilers from *Scream 7*.**

If you're reading this article about specific plot points of the new *Scream* movie, then you have at least a general awareness of the franchise, including how the seventh entry was once upon a time going to be a very different movie.

The original plan for *Scream 7* involved director Christopher Landon taking the reins from the Radio Silence filmmaking collective after 2022's *Scream* (5) and 2023's *Scream VI*. Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega, established as the two primary stars of a new era for the meta slasher franchise, then both left in rapid succession; the former was fired over expressing her views about the Israel-Hamas war on social media, the latter self-ejected because "it was all kind of falling apart." Landon himself followed suit.

The *Scream 7* that's now playing in theaters is a wholly new take without the presence of Barrera and Ortega's Carpenter sisters. Original *Scream* scribe Kevin Williamson crafted a story around Neve Campbell's Sidney Evans (formerly Prescott) and her family, teenage daughter Tatum (Isabel May), and cop husband Mark (Joel McHale), in their new home of Pine Grove. And yet, because this franchise is still very self-aware, it does somewhat deal with the events of the past two movies — or at least comments on them.

In what could be interpreted as a salting-the-earth approach, *Scream 7* does not mention the characters of Sam (Barrera) and Tara (Ortega) by name at all. The closest we get is a quip from Jasmin Savoy Brown's Mindy Meeks-Martin. Along with Mason Gooding's Chad, the Meeks-Martin twins are the only new characters from the Barrera era of *Scream* that return for this sequel.

Ghostface in 'Scream 7'.

Jessica Miglio/Paramount

During a bar scene in which the teens theorize who the new Ghostface killer or killers could be, Mindy remarks, "Billy Loomis had a secret love child, so who the f--- knows?" as a nod to Sam, the daughter of the now-deceased Ghostface of the first movie, played by Skeet Ulrich.

There are numerous other mentions to what happened in New York City and the events of *Scream VI*, like when Asa Germann's Lucas, the son of Anna Camp's Jessica and next-door neighbor to Sidney in Pine Grove, mentions watching both the old *Dateline* coverage and the Netflix documentary on the NYC attack. Courteney Cox's Gale Weathers, now a reporter for NY's *Channel 7*, also suffers from nerve damage in her hand caused by the Ghostface attack in her Manhattan apartment in the previous film.

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But for the most part, *Scream 7*'s meta commentary seems to poke fun at *Scream VI* a bit. Gale, in a particularly pointed quip, comments to Sid of past events, "You're lucky you sat this one out. It was brutal." One of the other two Ghostfaces, Jessica, then shouts at Sid in the ending climax, "A Ghostface attack doesn't count if you're not there."

However, there's the added layer of Campbell sitting out *Scream VI* because of a pay dispute, when considering the commentary. The actress recently told *CBS Mornings* of that period in her career, "When I made that decision, I just didn't think I could live with myself walking on set. It just didn't feel right. I just knew that my value to this franchise was bigger than what had been offered."

And yet, both Mindy and Chad are back for *Scream 7*, so there are some nods to those previous movies. Together with Sam and Tara, the characters make up the "Core Four," the leads of what was supposed to be a trilogy led by Barrera's Sam. At one point, Isabel May's Tatum exclaims to the Meeks-Martins, "Why are you here?" Good question. The twins now work for Gale as part of her camera crew, though Mindy says she has aspirations to surpass her mentor as a newswoman. Chad also acknowledges that they serve as representations of the "Woodsboro legacy."

Mason Good and Jasmin Savoy Brown in 'Scream 7'.

Swaths of the fandom still take issue with Barrera's firing. In 2023, the actress's comments on the Israel-Hamas war were seen as "antisemitic" by production company Spyglass, though she later clarified her comments and denounced antisemitism. A "Boycott *Scream 7*" movement emerged, fueled by a recent show of force by pro-Palestine protestors outside the Paramount Studios lot during the film's global premiere in Los Angeles.

On the flip side, there are also legions of *Scream* fans who are coming out to support Campbell's return as a lead of the franchise, Williamson's chance to take the director's seat for one of these films, and overall excitement for a new slasher-whodunnit.

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In an interview with **, Gooding spoke about "taking my time to grieve" the work of *Scream* and *Scream VI* while "trying to find a way to relate to the work that had been done."

"The creatives behind it, in this case Kevin and Neve," he said, "finding a way to create their collaborative effort after taking so long away from it, getting their recompense, and having the return of their influence on the franchise, hopefully, is just done in a way that you can support *that* and be respectful to *that*."

"Melissa, Jenna, Mason, and I all remain close," Brown told press on the red carpet for the *Scream 7* premiere. "We're really good friends. We love each other, we support each other's work. Of course, we miss them because we came up in this franchise together, and I'm just so grateful to be back because Mindy means a lot to me. To play a queer, Black character in a franchise like this, visibility matters, and I'm really proud to play Mindy."

Original Article on Source

Source: “EW Slasher”