After Neve Campbell’s absence in Scream 6, series creator Kevin Williamson wants her to return.
During an interview with the Happy Horror Time podcast, original Scream writer Williamson addressed the elephant in the room: that Campbell wasn’t offered enough money for Scream 6.
“All I can say is, ‘Pay her the money’,” he said. “Yes, you heard it, everyone. That’s what I would do. I would give her that.”
Campbell famously refused to return for Scream’s most recent instalment, claiming she rejected an offer that left her feeling “undervalued”. She originally played Sidney Prescott in the hit first installment.
“As a woman in this business, I think it’s really important for us to be valued and to fight to be valued,” she explained. “I honestly don’t believe that if I were a man and had done five installments of a huge blockbuster franchise over 25 years, that the number that I was offered would be the number that would be offered to a man.”
“And in my soul, I just couldn’t do that,” she added. “I couldn’t walk on set feeling that — feeling undervalued and feeling the unfairness, or lack of fairness, around that.”
As a result, Campbell sat out Scream 6 while other main players, including Courtney Cox and Skeet Ulrich, returned to the franchise.
Still, Williamson understands why she wouldn’t want to return under the circumstances, but it looks as though he’s still keen to get her back.
“I know her well,” he said. “I love and adore her, and that’s what she did and it’s great for her.”
“One day, they’ll figure that all out,” he added.
IGN’s Scream 6 review gave it 9/10 and said: “Emotions and brutality are at an all-time high in Scream 6, setting it up to be the best sequel in the franchise yet. Though it does ultimately fumble the reason for Sidney Prescott’s absence, RadioSilence has officially proven that there’s a future for the franchise with or without its original final girl by giving us strong connections to the new Core Four.”
Want to read more about Scream? Check out what we know about Scream 7 as well as the Scream 6 ending explained.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
