Key Takeaways
- Scream 5 shocked fans by killing off a core character, Dewey Riley, played by David Arquette.
- Actor Mikey Madison was unprepared for intense fan reactions to Dewey’s death in Scream 5.
- Despite Dewey’s demise, fans speculate he could return as a ghost in Scream 7, similar to Billy Loomis.
A Scream 5 cast member wasn’t fully prepared for fans’ reactions to their version of Ghostface killing a fan-favorite character. The actor apologized to fans when confronted with the shocking Scream 5 death.
Scream 5 continued the horror franchise’s tradition of killing characters most fans would consider safe. The deaths of Drew Barrymore, Jamie Kennedy, and Liev Schreiber’s characters stunned most fans, but many still weren’t prepared for Ghostface to kill David Arquette’s Dewey Riley in the fifth film. The character had been part of the franchise’s core trio since the first film–alongside Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott and Courteney Cox’s Gale Weathers–but met his shocking demise at the hands of actress Mikey Madison’s Amber, one of the two Ghostface killers in Scream 5.
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During an interview with Perri Nemiroff for the Collider Ladies Night podcast, Madison discussed her feelings about playing the character responsible for killing Dewey and the intense fan reaction. Madison admitted that she wasn’t entirely aware of how huge the Scream fanbase was when she landed the role of Amber, saying she “naively went into [the Scream franchise].” She also noted that she was sad to see Dewey Riley killed off but wasn’t prepared for how passionate the fan response would be:
And so I remember being kind of sad because I was like, ‘Oh, such a great character. It’ll be sad to see him go.’ And then I realized afterward the heartbreak that so many people felt. People have come up to me, and they’re like, ‘I hate that this happened. I’m mad at you.’ And I’m like, ‘I’m so sorry, I didn’t write the script!’ I didn’t want to do it.
Madison also reflected on her Scream 5 audition experience, noting that she sent a tape and heard nothing back for roughly 8 months. Having “pretty much forgotten about it,” Madison was later offered the role and told her character would be a Ghostface killer. Madison commented why she loved the idea of playing Ghostface and why the film series is fun for actors to star in:
I was like, ‘Yeah, that sounds really fun. I would absolutely like to do that, and I specifically would love to play this Ghostface character,’ because
it’s such an interesting, fun reveal
, and it’s such a crazy, unpredictable arc for a character, as well. I think that
those films are so self-aware
in a way where all the actors know exactly what kind of movie they’re in, and you’re able to have fun with it.
Madison and fans weren’t the only ones upset by Dewey’s death. Campbell revealed that she and her co-stars urged the Scream 5 directors to reconsider killing Dewey. Cox even tried to convince the directors to film the death scene “both ways” to give themselves options in case they didn’t want to go through with it. Ultimately, it all to no avail, as Dewey met a gruesome fate, a decision Campbell questioned because of how strong the fan reaction was.
Of course, it could be argued that the death of one of the Scream franchise’s 3 original heroes was inevitable. Fans could have found it difficult to believe Sidney, Dewey, and Gale could cross paths with Ghostface so many times without one of them being killed. Besides, just because Dewey is dead doesn’t mean fans can’t see him again. Billy Loomis, one of the two original Ghostface killers, returned as a spirit to torment his daughter, Melissa Barrera’s Sam Carpenter, in Scream 5. So, some fans believe Arqeutte’s Dewey could return in Scream 7 as a ghost that only Gale Weathers can see. That may come across as cheap or cheesy to some, but many fans probably wouldn’t complain if they got to see Dewey one last time.
Scream (2022) is available on Paramount Plus.
The 2022 incarnation of Scream is the fifth entry in the franchise, set twenty-five years after the brutal murders caused by Billy Loomis and Stu Macher shocked the quiet town of Woodsboro. Now a new killer has donned the Ghostface mask and has begun targeting a group of teenagers to resurrect secrets from the town’s deadly past. Following the prior killers’ footsteps, a new Ghostface attacks a high school student named Tara Carpenter. When her sister learns of the attack, she returns and meets with Tara’s old friend group to check on her. However, Ghostface strikes again when they visit the hospital, forcing them to partner with series regulars Dewey Riley, Sidney Prescott, and Gale Weathers to discover the truth behind the original Woodsboro murders and stop the new copycats.
- Release Date
- January 14, 2022
- Director
- Matt Bettinelli-Olpin , Tyler Gillett
- Cast
- Neve Campbell , Courteney Cox , David Arquette , Melissa Barrera , Jack Quaid , Mikey Madison , Jenna Ortega
- Runtime
- 114 minutes
- Writers
- Guy Busick , James Vanderbilt
- Budget
- 24 million
- Studio(s)
- Disney
- Distributor(s)
- Disney
- prequel(s)
- Scream 3 , Scream 2 , scream 4
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