David Arquette is Back for ‘Scream 7’, Thanks to Ex-Courteney Cox
Ghostface is back, and so is David Arquette for Scream 7! After saying goodbye to his character, Dewey Riley, in Scream 5, fans were left wondering if they’d ever see the beloved OG character return to the Scream universe. But thanks to a little help from his ex-wife and longtime co-star, Courteney Cox, it seems that Dewey’s story isn’t over just yet. After all, they found a way to bring back Matthew Lillard’s Stu Macher and Skeet Ulrich’s Billy Loomis from the dead—why not one of the good guys?
David Arquette on Scream 7
Talk about friendly exes!
An insider told In Touch Weekly that Cox, after agreeing to reprise her role as Gale Weathers, insisted the producers also bring back Arquette. The source said, “Rebuilding the Scream franchise from the ground up has been a huge part of Courteney’s life for the last year after the original plans for the seventh film imploded and the stars and director left the project.”
The insider also mentioned that it was Courtney who “helped turn the re-imagined movie into a once-in-a-lifetime reunion of the classic 1996 original” especially with the return of Lillard, and now, Arquette, even if their characters “had been definitively killed off in previous installments.”
Of course, the main lead, Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott, was already confirmed to return, despite being noticeably absent in Scream 6. Now that a lot of seemingly dead characters are confirmed to be back again, much to the delight of fans of the original films, the question is: will their return be for the better, or will it merely be fan service?
Lillard, who played Stu Macher—Billy Loomis’ best friend and the killer in the first film—died when a television set fell on his head. Lillard admitted during a panel at 90s Con (via Screen Rant) that he’s “very excited and slightly terrified to be back because all I can do is really screw up a legacy that we have.” He added, “I could really suck, and so that’s my fear. My fear is that I come back and sort of punish something that I could never have touched and been just fine. I hope I don’t f’ it up for everyone.”
However, Lillard is one of those characters fans have been waiting a long time for to come back, so him screwing up is very unlikely. Besides, the producers and writers could make a popular fan theory canon by revealing that Stu Macher has been alive all this time, thanks to his uncredited cameo in the second film.
Scream 7 is slated for a February 27, 2026, release.
