Melissa Barrera is no longer starring in Scream VII. The actor was dropped from the project after a series of social media posts in the wake of the Israel-Hamas War.
“Gaza is currently being treated like a concentration camp,” she wrote in one post on Instagram stories. “Cornering everyone together, with no where to go, no electricity no water … People have learnt nothing from our histories. And just like our histories, people are still silently watching it all happen. THIS IS GENOCIDE & ETHNIC CLEANSING.”
A spokesperson for Spyglass, the company behind the Scream franchise, issued a statement after the initial publication of this article: “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.”
THR has reached out to a rep for Barrera, who has made dozens of posts about the war since Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7.
Barrera helped revitalize the franchise with Scream, the 2022 feature that earned $137.7 million globally and combined generations of castmembers from the franchise. Barrera’s Sam Carpenter was the lead of that film, and the older sister of Jenna Ortega’s Tera. Barrera also starred in Scream VI, which was released in March and topped $168.9 million at the global box office.
Happy Death Day filmmaker Christopher Landon is taking over directing duties on Scream VII from filmmakers Radio Silence. Filming had not begun, and development had been slow amid the actors and writers strikes. Now, Spyglass is expected to recalibrate plans following Barrera’s firing. Paramount has handled distribution on the recent installments and is expected to return for the new film.
“This is my statement: 💔 Everything sucks. Stop yelling,” filmmaker Landon wrote on X Tuesday. “This was not my decision to make.”
Earlier on Tuesday, news broke that actor Susan Sarandon had been dropped by talent agency UTA following comments at a pro-Palestinian rally in New York City on Nov. 17.
Nov. 21: 5:16 p.m. Updated to include statements from Spyglass and Christopher Landon.
