Why Losing Melissa Barrera from the Scream Franchise was a Big Mistake

Melissa Barrera had played one of the main new characters in the Scream franchise, introducing a brand new storyline as well, that became an impressive comeback for such an iconic franchise. Then before we could get an exciting possible end to her character’s storyline, she was suddenly fired from a company that was part of the Scream production, which turned out to be a huge loss. I don’t want to get into the main reason why this happened, since this had to do with political reasons, but regardless, it was plain stupid for Melissa to get fired. 

This led to her other co — star that played her sister, deciding to quit the project, and yes, it was confirmed that one of the main reasons was due to Melissa getting kicked out of the production. Fans were so upset with this sudden development, because the new Scream franchise had introduced a pretty interesting storyline that excited a lot of fans. 

Melissa played a young woman named Sam Carpenter, who learns that she was the daughter of Billy Loomis, one of the very first killers in the first Scream film. This realization played a huge part in Sam’s relationship with her little sister, Tara, driving a wedge between them for a while, before Tara finally learns the hard truth about her sister’s heritage. 

Apparently, their mother had cheated on their father with Billy, and I honestly felt so bad for Sam’s character, because the thought that your father was a monster is just terrifying. 

Sam and Tara become the new targets of the new killers in the returning Scream films, due to Sam being related to Billy, leading to a creepy obsession from the people attempting to kill her. Sam quickly adapts to her new environment, learning to kill each of her enemies without a second thought, while protecting her loved ones. 

Then over time, we start to notice that maybe Sam isn’t really going to be the good guy in these films. 

At the end of Scream 6, we get one more scene with Sam, gazing in almost a hypnotic way at the Ghost face mask in her hands after taking out an entire psycho family with the help of her sister and an old friend. Tara looks at her sister with confusion, but also a bit of fear, as she tells her sister they need to leave the crime scene. 

Fans were so excited with this final shot from Scream 6, believing that Sam was going to end up following in her father’s footsteps, becoming a complete psychopath, and going after her own people. This would have made perfect sense, because Sam was going off the deep end since Scream 5. Her mental state can only take so much, especially with killing so many people, channeling her father in a sort of anti — hero way. My theory was that it was going to end with Tara being forced to murder her own sister, ending their story in such a tragic way. 

But no, we never got that storyline, or whatever the team was going to set up, because of the heavy loss of Melissa Barrera before Scream 7 could even start filming. Once the actress, Jenna Ortega, who played her sister left too, it pretty much didn’t matter at that point, because how the hell can you explain how Sam was suddenly missing, but her little sister was still present?

Also, I can’t believe that Scream 7 was even made. 

How can you explain the sudden loss of interest in the daughter of Billy Loomis, choosing to go after the old school people from the original films? This change came out of nowhere, and it just ruins the vibe that the first two films in the reboot were going for. Plus, massive spoiler here, the new killers were willing to kill Dewey from the original cast in Scream 5, due to their obsession with Sam. 

I guess the killers didn’t care to go after Sam anymore…that is honestly bad writing. 

It’s a massive shame that we lost out on what could have been such a great storyline for Scream, and the fact that the new team was able to bring back the franchise with a great story idea was awesome…only for them to lose all of their potential once they lost their main co — star. 

I feel so bad for the ones who were involved (not the people associated with firing the main actress), and I feel so bad for Melissa, who was so damn great in these two new Scream films. 

How did you feel about the bad news when you Scream fans first heard about this awful development?

Thank you for reading!

Emy Quinn