Scream 7 Casts Joel McHale As Sidney Prescott’s Husband Mark

The “Scream” franchise is all the time throwing a curveball or two at followers with each installment, however it’s secure to say this latest casting report is taking issues to an much more complicated excessive. Regardless of getting a contemporary and modernized replace beginning with 2022’s annoyingly-titled “Scream” (which was really the fifth film within the property) and persevering with with “Scream VI,” the way forward for the horror model has remained considerably up within the air following the dual departures of latest leads Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega. In fact, that hasn’t stopped Paramount from making an attempt to forge on forward anyway with these confirmed money-making sequels by doubling down on nostalgia, bringing again Neve Campbell’s last lady Sidney Prescott for “Scream 7” and even roping in unique architect/author Kevin Williamson as director, too.

Now, nevertheless, the most recent twist on this saga is elevating much more questions than solutions for followers.

Deadline has revealed {that a} contemporary face can be becoming a member of the solid of the upcoming seventh “Scream” movie: “Neighborhood” star Joel McHale, who’s been solid as Sidney’s husband Mark. That may sound odd to longtime followers since, in fact, a personality and potential love curiosity named Mark Kincaid already appeared approach again throughout 2000’s “Scream 3,” a cop memorably performed by Patrick Dempsey. So, it stands to motive that the decisionmakers merely could not get Dempsey again for no matter motive and easily recast the function with one other good-looking hunk … proper? Nope! Apparently, Deadline is claiming that McHale is portraying a totally different character, named Mark Evans, who ended up catching Sidney’s eye sooner or later prior to now and can lastly be making an on-screen look after solely being talked about offhandedly (together with the couple’s kids) in earlier films.

Confused? Yeah, we’re, too. Let’s attempt to make sense of this information under.

Even for a slasher franchise famously been constructed on the very thought of twist endings and killer reveals, this can be a bit a lot. With deepest apologies to all of the McDreamy admirers on the market, I am afraid we’ve got extra dangerous information. Somewhat than lastly bringing again Patrick Dempsey’s character Mark Kincaid, whom we’ve not really seen since he narrowly survived the massacre on the finish of “Scream 3,” it seems that the studio is taking “Scream 7” in a surprisingly totally different (and rather more head-scratching) path. This comes opposite to earlier remarks by Dempsey himself (through Leisure Weekly), when he indicated as lately as October of 2024 that he had “a dialog” about reprising his function as Mark and was “ready on the script” for the following film. As a substitute, we’re apparently getting a brand-new character performed by Joel McHale (who himself is a veteran of the horror style, having appeared in 2023’s “It is A Fantastic Knife,” Sam Levinson’s “Assassination Nation,” and extra) … who, uh, simply so occurs to be named Mark, too?

What makes this whole scenario a lot weirder is that earlier administrators Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, identified colloquially as Radio Silence, beforehand “confirmed” (once more, through Leisure Weekly) that Sidney was fortunately married to Dempsey’s character off-screen and even had kids with him. In some throwaway dialogue within the fifth movie, it was defined that Sidney’s new household remained in hiding with a view to escape the discover of the most recent Ghostface killer. Now, canonically, all that is ever really said is that Sidney is married to somebody named Mark and, properly, I suppose it is on audiences for assuming that it was the exact same Mark from “Scream 3.” That is clearly going to be the technical loophole that the artistic crew on “Scream 7” will use to get round this, however would not it have been simpler to simply say that McHale’s character is Mark Kincaid?

In any case, McHale joins a solid that features Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Mason Gooding, and franchise newcomers Celeste O’Connor, Asa Germann, Mckenna Grace, Sam Rechner, Anna Camp, and Isabel Could (who can be enjoying Sidney and Mark’s daughter). “Scream 7” is presently slated to succeed in theaters on February 27, 2026.