Scream 7: Jenna Ortega “not returning” for sequel

Jenna Ortega was an integral part of the new Scream movies, but like Mellissa Barrera, she won’t be returning for a third instalment.

Ever since the first movie premiered in 1996, the Scream movies have been one of the biggest horror franchises in cinema.

One factor that allowed the franchise to continue was the introduction of new lead characters, Tara and Sam Carpenter, played by Jenna Ortega and Melissa Barrera.

However, it seems that their time with the franchise has ended prematurely, as Barrera has been fired from the production, and Ortega won’t be returning for currently unconfirmed reasons.

Jenna Ortega and Melissa Barrera will not be in Scream 7

In an exclusive report from Deadline, Jenna Ortega will not be returning for Scream 7. Though apparently this was planned during the actor’s strike, and has “nothing to do with the fallout from Melissa Barrera‘s firing yesterday by Spyglass Media over that actress’ social media repostings on the Hamas-Israel conflict; nor does it have to do with the actress asking for an end to her Scream contract,”

Barrera was recently fired from the franchise due to her social media posts in support of Palestine. with Spyglass issuing the statement in response: “Spyglass’ stance is unequivocally clear: We have zero tolerance for antisemitism or the incitement of hate in any form, including false references to genocide, ethnic cleansing, Holocaust distortion or anything that flagrantly crosses the line into hate speech.”

This descision caused fan outrage at the franchises’ production company in defence of Barrera. These fans are now concluding that Ortega has dropped out of the sequel in solidarity. The pair played sisters in the franchise.

As the star of the Wednesday series and the upcoming Beetlejuice sequel, Ortega was a name used to draw people in to the modern Scream movies, leading to Scream 6 gaining the franchises’ best opening box-office gross at $67 million globally.

Scream 7 is still currently in early production, as the script is not ready yet. Before this, production was having to work around Ortega’s busy schedule.

Make sure to keep checking our coverage here at Dexerto, as we find out more about this turn of events.

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