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Scream writer says beloved character was meant to die in first movie

Photo credit: Paramount Pictures/Spyglass Media Group
Photo credit: Paramount Pictures/Spyglass Media Group

Scream's 2022 reboot is bringing back all your favourite cast members: Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott, Courteney Cox as Gale Weathers, Roger L Jackson as the voice of Ghostface, and David Arquette as Dewey Riley.

It's kind of surprising that our main trio of protagonists have survived so many near-death encounters, but it turns out that Dewey almost was killed off. And we don't mean in the third or fourth films, we mean the first.

The franchise's original writer Kevin Williamson, who has brought back as an executive producer for the upcoming fifth entry, has been speaking to Us Weekly, where he talked about how close Dewey got to meeting his maker.

Photo credit: Paramount Pictures/Spyglass Media Group
Photo credit: Paramount Pictures/Spyglass Media Group

Related: Scream star rules out a return in the new movie

"We filmed it that way," he said. "But what happened during the course of the movie is we realized how his performance was just so witty. Also, we loved him. He played it with such heart, such commitment and everyone kept thinking that.

"About halfway through it, they were asking me about a sequel because I had already written the outline. They were like, 'What about the sequel? Why isn't Dewey in the sequel?' And so, just in case, we filmed that last sequence, of him getting in the ambulance... Just in case – and Wes (Craven) was right about that."

The fifth Scream instalment is obviously the first film in the franchise without Wes Craven due to his sad passing in 2015, and while you might expect that Williamson would have felt the pressure in taking over the franchise, he said that he didn't.

"I didn't have any pressure because I didn't have to do it," he noted. "25 years later, it's exciting to sort of turn the franchise over someone else. I didn't know how I felt about being a part of it with Wes gone.

Photo credit: Paramount Pictures/Spyglass Media Group
Photo credit: Paramount Pictures/Spyglass Media Group

Related: Scream writer addresses long-running fan theory about first movie

"I think all of us had – you could ask Neve and Courteney – but we all had this question of 'Why should we do this? With Wes gone, is Scream over?' And, 'Maybe if they're going to do Scream again, then she'd just start over with a brand new story line and a true reboot?'

"But once you listened to James Vanderbilt and Guy [Busick]... [I realised] they have such love for the first film. They understood the heart and soul of it, and they understood the emotionalization, that it's not about horror, it's about the emotion and really making the audience feel something. And they really understood the DNA of Scream.

"And I think Wes would have been really, really happy with those guys, because they spoke his language. So, I didn't want it to happen without me."

Scream slashes its way into cinemas on January 14, 2022.

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