Skeet Ulrich says he was originally set to return as Billy Loomis in Scream 7 as part of a long-range plan that would have tied his character to Melissa Barrera’s Sam Carpenter across three films, before her firing and a creative reset took that version of the sequel off the table. In recent interviews, Ulrich has confirmed he is “not involved” with the new movie, despite early conversations that framed his comeback as central to the next chapter.
Ulrich told Entertainment Weekly the creative team pitched a “three-picture arc” in which Billy’s ghost would keep appearing to Sam, slowly steering her toward becoming a new Ghostface. That plan tracked with the first two films, where Sam sees her father in violent, pivotal moments. Ulrich said that after behind-the-scenes upheaval, including Barrera’s exit, he never saw a final script for that storyline and now knows “nothing about the seventh.”
Barrera was removed from the franchise in November 2023 after Spyglass said her social media posts about the Israel-Hamas war crossed into antisemitic rhetoric. The company issued a statement stressing “zero tolerance for antisemitism or the incitement of hate in any form,” citing posts that referred to genocide and ethnic cleansing.
The actor responded that she condemns antisemitism and Islamophobia and opposes prejudice against any group. In interviews and public statements, Barrera has described the firing as “shocking” and said she believed she used her platform to raise human-rights concerns, calling the aftermath one of the hardest stretches of her career.
Ulrich’s comments land as Scream 7 continues its retooled path under returning architect Kevin Williamson, who now directs a story centered on Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott and her daughter. The new film brings back Campbell, Courteney Cox, Jasmin Savoy Brown and Mason Gooding, and even finds space for Matthew Lillard, Scott Foley and David Arquette, whose characters had died in earlier entries.
Ulrich has said he is still excited to see the finished movie as a viewer, while acknowledging that the earlier Sam-and-Billy arc has effectively been erased. For fans who had followed Barrera’s storyline through two films, his remarks confirm that the franchise once aimed for a darker endpoint in which Sam, haunted by her father, would have stepped fully into the Ghostface role before the creative overhaul.
