Jenna Ortega Won't Be in 'Scream VII' After Melissa Barrera's Firing

The Scream franchise will have a clean break for the seventh installment.

Jenna Ortega won’t reprise her role as Tara Carpenter because of her filming schedule for season 2 of Wednesday, according to Deadline. Filming for the hit Netflix series starts in April 2024 and the cast is expected to stay in Ireland until the summer. Ortega also has a few extra days of shooting scheduled for Beetlejuice, which has a theatrical release planned for Labor Day 2024.

The news comes after Ortega’s costar Melissa Barrera was fired from Scream VII due to her comments about the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine. Variety reported on Tuesday, November 21, that Barrera, 33, resharing posts that accused Israel of “genocide and ethnic cleansing” and distorting “the Holocaust to boost the Israeli arms industry” is what led to her being dismissed.

Production company Spyglass Media Group, who is behind the newest batch of Scream films, subsequently denied that Barrera’s pro-Palestine comments caused the decision.

“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,” their statement read.

Barrera, who played Sam in the slasher movies, has yet to publicly address the situation. Prior to her exit, Barrera and Ortega were at the center of the next collection of Scream films, which focused on the Carpenter sisters as they start to get threatened by masked murderer Ghostface.

OG Scream stars Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) and Dewey Riley (David Arquette) made individual appearances in the fifth installment. While Cox, 59, also returned for Scream VI, Campbell, 50, rejected the studio’s salary offer and did not appear in the 2023 year movie. (Arquette, 52, for his part, didn’t return because his character was killed off before Scream VI.)

Before her exit, Barrera weighed in on Campbell’s absence after helping pave the way for Scream legacy. “It’s hard thinking that we’re making a movie without her. We can’t get too hung up on that because we gotta make another movie,” she exclusively told Us Weekly in July 2022. “Of course Sidney is present. Her essence is present in the movie, you can’t just ignore that. We were all heartbroken, but we totally understand and respect her decision and hopefully if we get to make another one, we can have her back.”

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Ortega also supported Campbell’s decision, telling Elle in March, “It was really unfortunate. Especially because Neve is the coolest, sweetest, most talented lady. The franchise wouldn’t be what it is without her.”

Us Weekly has reached out to Ortega’s reps and Spyglass for comment.

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