Scream Creator Has One Regret About The Series
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December 12, 2022, marks the 25th anniversary of the theatrical release of Scream 2, the killer follow-up to the original slasher hit that completely flipped the horror genre on its head. Entertainment Weekly recently caught up with Kevin Williamson, the mastermind behind the franchise’s first two entries, and the outlet questioned him about things the time it took him to write the script for the 1997 sequel and the unexpected success of the original movie. He was even asked about the death of fan-favorite Scream character Randy Meeks (Jamie Kennedy), and the writer didn’t waste any time admitting that he regrets killing him off.
When Scream arrived in theaters in 1996, nobody anticipated just how successful the film would be and the impact it would have on the genre. Even Williamson didn’t expect the slasher series to be thriving over 25 years later, yet here we are. A sixth installment is due in theaters next March, and when the unforeseen death of Randy Meeks was brought up while speaking with the outlet about Scream 2, he confessed that he killed off the beloved character merely to up the stakes in the sequel.
“I thought if you kill someone really important to the audience in the middle, it just ups the stakes,” said Williamson. He went on to state that he knew characters like Sidney, Dewey, and Gale were safe in Scream 2, which forced him to “look to secondary characters” like Randy Meeks. “I would have given him a much bigger life had I known this franchise was going to live and live.”
While penning the script for Scream 2, Williamson wanted to catch the audience off guard by delivering a “punch in the gut.” Looking back, however, he confessed he would have loved to see Randy Meeks as a legacy character in later sequels. Nevertheless, he felt the death of a prominent character was “needed at that time, to really get [viewers] mad, and get [them] mad at the killer.”
Although Scream 2 saw Randy Meeks offed in brutal fashion, the beloved character was brought back for a cameo in Scream 3 via a videotape recording. In it, the horror fanatic laid out the rules of a movie trilogy and wished his friends good luck as they attempted to survive a new killer donning the Ghostface costume.
While the third entry marks the character’s final appearance in the popular horror series, he’s mentioned briefly in Scream 4 and quite prominently in this year’s soft reboot, particularly by his horror movie-obsessed niece Mindy Meeks (Jasmine Savoy Brown). Considering she and her brother Chad (Mason Gooding) will return for next year’s sixth installment, chances are there are plenty of Randy references still to come.
Scream 6 is scheduled to arrive in theaters on March 10, 2023, and in addition to Brown and Gooding, Jenny Ortega, Melissa Barrera, Courtney Cox, and Hayden Panettiere are all set to reprise their roles from previous films. Joining them are franchise newcomers Samara Weaving, Liana Liberato, Devyn Nekoda, Josh Segarra, Tony Revolori, Jack Champion, Dermot Mulroney, and Andre Anthony. Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott will join Randy Meeks on the sidelines after opting to pass on appearing in the latest entry following a highly publicized pay dispute.
Even though Scream 6 will be noticeably missing beloved characters like Sidney Prescott, Dewey Riley, and Randy Meeks, next year’s sequel looks to be full of plenty of surprises. For one, the film’s setting will shift from the fictional town of Woodsboro, California to New York City, which will give Ghostface a much larger playground. Additionally, both Ortega and Barrera have teased that the latest installment will be the franchise’s goriest entry yet, and we’re absolutely here for it.
