Hayden Panettiere Wants To Return To Her Best Franchise
Hayden Panetierre has been in a few great franchises in her career, however, she desperately wants to return the best franchise she has been in.
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For any installment of the Scream franchise, part of the fun comes from the returning characters – those who were able to dodge the icy cold blade of Ghostface from the previous film and make their way back into the story to fight another day. From Neve Campbell to Courteney Cox, and David Arquette, we’ve been blessed to see a lot of the same faces as the gloriously satirical horror films roll along. But with the loss of Arquette’s character, Dewey Riley in Scream 5, and the recent report that Campbell won’t be returning to reprise her legendary role as Sydney for the sixth installment, it seemed like we were running out of legacy characters to keep the films burning with that necessary flame of nostalgia. And then Hayden Panettiere stepped in to save the day.
Echoing the title of her successful starring role on Heroes, Hayden Panettiere knew just what fans would want when she pitched the return of her franchise favorite character, Kirby, to directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Grant. During a sit-down with Good Morning America, the actress admitted to really wanting to participate in Scream 6 to the point where she got the filmmaker’s on the horn and suggested that they bring Kirby back. And whatever she said worked as fans can expect to see the Scream 4 character face off against the possible many faces of Ghostface all over again.
Although Hayden Panettiere says that she pitched the idea to them, judging by some sly moments in Scream 5, Bettinelli-Olpin and Grant were already leaving the door open on a Kirby comeback. Whether they planned for it to happen so soon is up in the air, but with the loss of Arquette and Campbell, we’re thinking Kirby’s return was bound to happen sooner rather than later.
When we last touched base with Hayden Panettiere’s Kirby, she was seemingly murdered at the hands of Scream 4’s Charlie Walker, who was played by Rory Culkin. But you never know who’s truly dead in the Scream universe, something that’s made clear in Scream 5 when Dewey is seen scrolling through the missed calls on his phone. In this seemingly innocent moment, hawk-eyed viewers could see Kirby Reed’s name in the call log, confirming that the character survived the brutal attack. The other moment happens when Jack Quaid’s Richie is slamming a pizza and catching up on the happenings of the Stab series via YouTube. On the “recommended” sidebar of the video he’s watching; you can see the title “Interview with Woodsboro Survivor Kirby Reed!” once again spelling out that she made it out alive after all.
Along with Hayden Panettiere, we can expect Scream 6 to include the likes of Courteney Cox, Jenna Ortega, Melissa Barrera, Jasmin Savoy Brown, and Mason Gooding. Blending the old with the new is always a challenge in any film franchise, especially one as long running and iconic as Scream. While we love to see a new generation step up to the plate and star, there’s also a certain nostalgia surrounding those original characters that we just can’t seem to leave behind.
