The Scream Fandom’s Enduring Divide
Nearly a year after star Melissa Barrera was fired for pro-Palestinian social media posts, fans remain torn over the future of the franchise.
by Michael Boyle
The new Scream crew: Mason Gooding, Jenna Ortega, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Devyn Nekoda, and Melissa Barrera.
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In the early aftermath of Hamas’s brutal October 7th attacks on Israeli civilians, Hollywood celebrities expressed widespread support and sympathy for Israel. A-list actors like Jamie Lee Curtis and Natalie Portman shared sympathetic messages on Instagram with the #WeStandWithIsrael hashtag; some even posted images of a war-torn Gaza and mistakenly referred to them as images of a war-torn Israel—as Justin Bieber did, with few repercussions.
But in the weeks that followed, as the Israeli government responded with indiscriminate attacks on the people of Gaza, it was rare to see similar sympathy and support from Hollywood for the Palestinian people, even as the number of casualties climbed rapidly.
For Melissa Barrera, though, the injustice was too severe to stay silent. Barrera, the lead of the most recent installments in the Scream franchise—2022’s Scream and 2023’s Scream VI—began to draw attention to the death and displacement of so many Palestinian civilians on her Instagram page, through hundreds of stories (short posts that disappear after 24 hours) about the conflict.
Barrera had never been afraid to speak her mind on political topics, but now she was talking about perhaps the touchiest subject in geopolitics—with a whole new level of passion. On October 21st, she posted one particular story in which she wrote the following:
I have been actively looking for videos and information about the Palestinian side for the last 2 weeks or so, following accounts etc. Why? Because western media only shows the other side. Why they do that, I will let you deduce for yourself. Usually, the algorithm on social media gets the gist. Well... my discover page on IG will only show me videos showing and talking about the Israeli side. Censorship is very real.
One month later, the Scream franchise’s production company, Spyglass, announced that Barrera had been let go from the Scream 7 production—specifically as the result of her speaking out against the Israeli government’s actions. They never specified which post sealed the deal, but their comments suggest it was that one above.
“Spyglass’ stance is unequivocally clear,” they wrote. “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.”
Barrera’s firing was the first in a series of major changes for the next installment of the franchise. It was soon announced that fellow star Jenna Ortega had dropped out of Scream 7, and neither Jasmin Savoy Brown nor Mason Gooding were returning, either. Director Christopher Landon soon left the production, too, stating that, “It was a dream job that turned into a nightmare.”
It was a series of events that shook up the Scream fandom, and raised complicated questions at the intersection of art and politics. Many Scream fans were left asking: Can we still enjoy Scream 7 if we know what they’ve done to their last lead, now that we know exactly what sort of people are running the franchise? Do we even want to enjoy Scream 7 in these circumstances, or would it be better to wait until someone else takes over—or should we move on from Scream entirely?
Although the original Scream, which came out in 1996, is easily the most iconic installment in the franchise, the fandom has proven enduring over the decades. With its explicitly feminist (and implicitly queer) themes, the fandom has a reputation for being a kind, inclusive community, at least compared to the chaotic cesspits of some other large, long-running media fandoms. Add on the fact that there’s never been an outright bad movie in the series (sorry, Scream 3 haters), and it’s no surprise fans have kept up the passion for so long.
The series had an eleven-year gap between Scream 3 (2000) and Scream 4 (2011), followed by another eleven-year gap until the fifth film in 2022 (confusingly named Scream, just like the first one). But in those gaps, there always seemed to be something fun for fans to talk about. Were Kirby or Stu still alive? Was killing off [redacted] the right choice? What did Sidney, Gale, and Dewey get up to in the decades of their lives we never got to see?
Prior to November 2023, the Scream franchise was in perhaps the strongest, healthiest place it had been in years. It was reaping the benefits from one of the smartest choices its producers made: centering its second revival attempt around a new, diverse group of young people.
Some of the new casting choices made sense from the jump. Even before Wednesday and Yellowjackets, the star potential of Jenna Ortega and Jasmin Savoy Brown, respectively, seemed obvious. But Barrera, best known at the time for her roles in Mexican soap operas and the financial flop that was 2021’s In the Heights, had not yet broken into the American mainstream.
In her first Scream film, Barrera was critiqued by fans and critics alike for a stiff performance—though some argued it was an apt acting choice for a more ethically ambiguous character, one the film’s writers genuinely wanted audiences to suspect might be a serial killer herself. Barrera had to play Sam closer to the chest than Neve Campbell’s original protagonist, Sidney Prescott. Barrera’s Sam is not a normal innocent underdog character; she’s older and more ruthless than Sidney in her first film—arguably a little too ruthless for her own good.
Acting choices aside, criticisms of Barrera were to be expected in a beloved franchise—the natural result of a newcomer taking up the mantle from a beloved protagonist. Sam was not only the new final girl, but a completely different sort of final girl. And because of a divisive initial response, 2023’s Scream VI was the true test of her strength as a franchise lead.
The results were hard to argue with. Not only was Scream VI a clear-cut financial and critical success, but Barrera was widely hailed as a highlight. The stiff acting allegations dropped to the wayside, and now the franchise had a massive following of younger, diverse fans, many of whom loved Sam and Jenna Ortega’s Tara—and would raise hell at the idea of either of them being killed off.
It seemed like the franchise had done the near-impossible: successfully hooked a whole new generation of viewers, all while paying respect to the old fans and convincing them to embrace Barrera as the new lead. Any other franchise would kill to be in Spyglass’s position—and then they dove into the biggest hot-button sociopolitical issue of the day.
“I have zero interest in the next installment,” read a top fan comment on the Scream subreddit when the circumstances of Barrera’s departure were first announced. “I’m at a loss for words that politics and money are the root cause of the demise of not only my favourite horror franchise, but the best one. I feel sorry for every creative involved with this film, especially Barrera who has done NOTHING wrong. Studios pandering to politics over fear of financing, it doesn't get more pathetic than that.”
As more details emerged about the franchise shake-up, the situation grew more complicated—but no less sympathetic. Fans learned that when Barrera and Ortega left the franchise, they both reportedly only had a two-movie contract with Spyglass: they weren’t fired so much as their contracts weren’t renewed. For Scream 7 defenders, the detail is justification for continued support of the franchise; for those who decided to boycott, it made the situation worse. As one fan noted, “That means they genuinely didn’t have to release a statement but CHOSE to lie on [Barrera’s] name.”
Sure enough, the Spyglass reps could have easily given a boilerplate explanation for Barrera’s departure from Scream 7, perhaps saying that they felt her story had reached its natural creative conclusion. This likely would’ve received some grumblings from fans, but the news that Neve Campbell—who’s still beloved by the fandom—was returning to the franchise would’ve surely won them back over.
Instead, Spyglass came out guns blazing, essentially stating that Barrera was engaging in “Holocaust distortion”. This is the sort of accusation that can and has ruined careers in Hollywood and far beyond it; it felt like Spyglass wasn’t just firing Barrera, but trying to make sure she could never find work in the industry ever again.
Spyglass’s claim that they were “drawing a hard line” against antisemitism seemed to rely on the fact that the hundreds of posts Barrera had shared on Instagram were no longer available to the public. Because of the temporary nature of Instagram stories, people wouldn’t be able to go back and check to see if there was merit to Spyglass’s claims.
Luckily, Barrera already had a fan who was taking screenshots of all her Instagram stories and posting them on a Twitter thread. Barrera fans had the receipts, all of which painted a picture of Barrera as a kind-hearted, passionate activist, one who repeatedly took the time to clarify that her critiques against the Israeli government were not criticisms of Jewish people themselves.
Spyglass’s actions towards Barrera have had a mixed response from the rest of the franchise’s cast. Though Ortega’s departure seemed like an act of solidarity with Barrera (and was widely interpreted as such), there’s little to indicate that it was anything more than a scheduling issue. Ortega reportedly left the project before Barrera was dropped, and she hasn’t said much publicly since, beyond liking an Instagram post that was sympathetic to Barrera’s situation. She also vaguely criticized Barrera’s treatment from Spyglass in a recent Vanity Fair profile, saying, “The business that we work in is so touchy-feely… Everybody wants to be politically correct, but I feel like, in doing that, we lose a lot of our humanity and integrity, because it lacks honesty.”
Jasmin Savoy Brown attracted fans’ notice in December 2023 when she unfollowed Scream’s distribution company, Paramount, on Instagram and posted in support of Palestine. Fellow cast member Hayden Panetierre also spoke out in Barrera’s defense, saying in a February interview that Barrera’s firing was “very unfair and upsetting,” implying that she’d been made a scapegoat in a particular political moment. “After she [spoke out], then a whole bunch of other actors and people in the industry started to do the same thing, right?” she said. “It was almost like she just did it earlier than everyone else.”
There’s also a clear gap between the older Scream cast members and the younger ones. In May—six months after Barrera was let go—the franchise announced its original star, Neve Campbell, would return alongside Scream creator Kevin Williamson. Neither Campbell nor fellow original cast member Courteney Cox, who also appears in the current run of films, have said much about Barrera’s firing—and Campbell in particular drew criticism for praising the studio when discussing her return to the franchise.
That generational gap is reflected in the fandom, too: older fans, like prominent Scream podcaster Ryan C. Showers, praised Campbell for “her maturity, grace, and class” and remarked that “everything does work out the way it’s supposed to” in an episode summing up the past year of Scream news. Younger fans, meanwhile, found Campbell’s statement about the studio disappointing and hollow. Her portrayal of her return to the franchise as a feminist victory—while making little mention of the previous female lead who was dropped and subsequently slandered for speaking her truth—made her look oblivious at best.
“Girl… you and I and everyone else knows the only reason why they called you back,” tweeted one fan. Culture writer Layne Morgan was far harsher, saying in a viral tweet, “And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the definition of white feminism that lacks intersection. White woman takes a job after Latina woman was fired for speaking out against genocide of other marginalized people. White woman paints it as her victory for fighting the pay gap…”
Within the cast and fans, the divide seems to reflect the stark generational differences over attitudes towards Israel and Palestine more broadly. According to a PewResearch survey of Americans this past spring, younger people are far less likely to believe Israel's ongoing response to the Oct. 7th attack is “acceptable,” and far less likely to support continued U.S. military aid. Most notably, it’s young people who are leading protests online and in person, while older generations, even those who disapprove of the situation, are more likely to treat it as something beyond their control.
While most of the younger cast members have acknowledged it publicly, older cast members have been quiet over the fact that the franchise has now tied itself to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This divide would likely be less of a problem if the franchise hadn’t spent so much of the past few years casting younger, more diverse actors who could appeal to a younger, more diverse audience. Spyglass seems to have sought out the aesthetics of youth and diversity—while being allergic to any of the actual ideals that younger, more diverse people tend to espouse.
Over the past year, many in the fandom have grown understandably frustrated by all of this. “I’m a life long Scream fan. It’s my favorite franchise ever,” wrote the most-upvoted comment in one r/Scream post in the aftermath of Barrera’s departure. “I never thought I would root against one of the films. But if they move forward at this point I hope it flops. Melissa has shown she is a genuine and caring person. To fire her is despicable. I wish nothing well for Spyglass.”
The muted and ambivalent fan response to Campbell’s return was just as telling. “Scream 7 news actually makes my stomach hurt,” wrote critic Richard Newby. “My favorite horror franchise, and yet there’s a very significant chance I won’t pay to see it in theaters. It all feels tainted and gross now.” “I really want to just be excited for this but man,” wrote Eric Goldman. “The path to this film has been so ugly and Melissa Barrera's treatment so shitty.”
The return of the OG final girl should have been a massive win for Scream. Instead, it was widely recognized as a desperate move to save face, especially in light of Campbell having walked out on Scream VI because she didn’t feel they were offering her enough money. (One fan described it as Spyglass pressing the “‘In case of emergency, respect Neve’ button.”) A year after Scream felt like one of the luckiest franchises in the world, its future now felt precarious.
The complicated mix of generational fandom differences, contract negotiations, and political backlash—stemming from criticism of an ongoing genocide that has claimed, by official count, 41,000 Palestinian lives (and, by some estimates, far more)—makes for a deeply complicated negotiation for Scream fans going forward.
“I wish I was happier about this,” wrote one Redditor reacting to Campbell’s return. “I'm excited she and Kevin [Williamson] are back together and there's a really good chance this will feel like the earlier films but I wish this was under more positive circumstances. Fuck you Spyglass… I love this franchise and I will see VII but I'm sad my love for this franchise going forward has been dampened by scared wimps. I wish I was more excited.”
Another fan went even harder: “Look, I really liked Neve, and I love the character of Sidney. But, her praising the studio for listening to her about money and not talking about how that same studio fucked over another up-and-coming actress, and essentially tried to blacklist her, is ignorant. I legitimately couldn't care less that she is back in Scream 7 due to this.”
For some big Sidney fans, however, it’s been easier to embrace the new shift. Podcaster Ryan C. Showers, for instance, drew the ire from what he’s now dubbed “toxic Barrera fans” after he made clear that he was going to support Scream 7 no matter what. “If anyone dares to try to cancel or come for Neve Campbell and Courteney Cox during this time, they will have to go through me,” he tweeted two days after Barrera’s departure was announced.
It’s a tone that would’ve been in line for a typical Scream fandom disagreement before Barrera’s firing. As the new films embraced a new cast, it was common throughout 2022-23 for older fans to defend their OG favorites from the younger fans who didn’t share the same nostalgia for them. Older fans bragging about having seen the original movies in theaters, or about how they’ve been quoting Gale Weathers since before newer fans were even born, used to be harmless, if a little annoying. To do the same sort of bragging in this political context, however, feels a lot darker and more disingenuous. Laughing about “flop Barrera stans” getting owned by Neve Campbell’s return takes on a different tone when many of Barrera’s supporters are motivated by a far more serious issue; it certainly comes across as more ghoulish than they perhaps intended.
The past ten months in the Scream fandom have been marked by a fundamental disagreement over how much the real-life circumstances behind the franchise should matter to fans. “I think by the time Scream 7 comes out, most people are emotionally mature enough to realize that a movie franchise about a guy in a mask has nothing to do with an international war,” Showers said in a May episode of his podcast. “I think that by the time Scream 7 unveils itself, a lot of the outrage will have passed.”
He’s not alone in this sentiment. For several fans I’ve talked to for this piece, everything involving Barrera, Spyglass, and Palestine have been irrelevant to the movie itself. “Without Sidney there, it would always feel like something was missing,” one fan who preferred to remain anonymous told me. “So I'm glad Sidney is back and I'm looking forward to what Scream 7 will do.” Some Scream fans argue boycotting Scream 7 would be like boycotting the first four Scream films for Harvey Weinstein’s involvement (a questionable comparison, given Weinstein’s crimes weren’t public knowledge at the time). For them, it’s another entry in the “separate the art from the artist” debate, or in this case, the art from the studio: seemingly every Hollywood production has had bad people involved, so why let that stop us now?
For Barrera’s defenders, however, the Scream franchise is now inherently tied up with the Israeli-Palestinian war: Spyglass made sure of that the moment they slandered their lead as an antisemite for speaking openly about it. For those supporting Barrera and Palestine by boycotting Scream 7, people sticking to the franchise are downplaying an ongoing real-life genocide just to more comfortably cheer on their favorite fictional final girl.
Many Scream 7 defenders seem unwilling to acknowledge that this is not just a regular fandom dispute: that some people’s love for their favorite shows and movies does indeed halt when major social and political issues are involved. Among those complaining about the “toxic Barrera fandom,” there’s an incredulity that the supposed haters could be genuinely motivated by outrage over an ongoing war, and the institutional backlash aimed towards anyone speaking out on it.
Ultimately, Scream 7 defenders do have one clear point that’s hard to dispute: boycotting the movie is not going to change much. The movie’s box office performance will not have any effect on the ongoing death toll among Palestinian civilians, nor will it give Melissa Barrera her job back. (Not that she seems to want it anymore, anyway.) It is, in the end, just a movie—and it’s true that there are plenty of morally dubious people behind nearly every major franchise. Boycotting the film isn’t serious activism in any real sense of the term.
But for those who truly care about Barrera, Palestine, and the treatment of free speech in the United States, “Scream 7 is just a movie” can easily serve as a point in their favor. Since the start of the conflict, people have made great sacrifices in support of Palestine. Barrera has continued publicly raising awareness of the ongoing genocide in Gaza despite already losing her biggest role as a result. Protesters across the world have risked their safety and their financial futures for the cause. Journalists throughout Gaza and the West Bank have been putting their lives on the line—over a hundred have already lost them. One American veteran even lit himself on fire.
For the rest of us Scream fans who supposedly care about the Palestinans who are still being starved, bombed and brutalized as we speak, would it kill us to show even the tiniest bit of solidarity? Is not watching a movie that big of an ask?
A lot of the Scream 7 boycotters were massive long-term fans of the franchise; for me personally, Scream 7 was easily the number-one upcoming movie I was looking forward to—at least up until last November. But in terms of sacrifices one can make, not watching this movie feels like the bare minimum. As much as I love Sidney and Gale and recognize them as wonderful, inspiring figures who’ve made an undeniable mark on the horror genre, I also recognize that they are, in the end, fictional characters. Sidney and Gale aren’t real; Barrera and the people of Palestine are.
For most Barrera fans arguing on her behalf, there’s little illusion that boycotting Scream 7 will change the world. It’s just that when it comes to standing by their principles—of making it clear that the mistreatment of Barrera is a legitimate line in the sand—not seeing a movie is the least they can do.
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Michael Boyle is a culture journalist and critic for /Film and The Daily Beast, with bylines in Polygon, Vulture, and Slate. You can find him on Twitter at @98MikeB.