Patrick Dempsey missed out on Scream 7 due to scheduling issues

It has been established in the Scream franchise that heroine Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) is married to a man named Mark, who viewers will be introduced to in the currently-filming Scream 7. Most fans assumed that her husband was Mark Kincaid, a character she met in Scream 3, where he was played by Patrick Dempsey. But Scream 7 has been filming since the start of January, and Dempsey is not in the movie. Instead, this film will reveal that Sidney’s husband is Mark Evans, played by Joel McHale (Community). Now, Dempsey has confirmed to Variety that he was in talks to reprise the role of Mark Kincaid in the new Scream sequel, but the scheduling didn’t work out.

Dempsey told Variety, “It just didn’t work out and we were dealing with the fires and everything that was going on and the schedule didn’t work out, unfortunately.” Dempsey, who lives in Malibu, was referencing the series of wildfires that hit California in January.

Spyglass and Paramount once intended to make a Scream 7 that would have starred Scream (2022) and Scream VI leads Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega, with Freaky and Happy Death Day director Christopher Landon at the helm. But then Ortega allegedly asked for a substantial pay raise – and as we saw when Neve Campbell dropped out of Scream VI due to a pay dispute, these pay issues don’t tend to work out. Then Barrera was fired from the project after comments she made about the Israel-Hamas war didn’t go over well with executives at Spyglass. Landon dropped out the of the project soon after. So Scream 7 has been re-developed, Campbell has signed on to return as franchise heroine Sidney Prescott, back in the lead role, while Kevin Williamson, who wrote the screenplay for the original Scream, directs the film from a screenplay by 2022’s Scream and Scream VI writer Guy Busick, who crafted the story with his co-writer on the fifth and sixth films, James Vanderbilt. (Vanderbilt is also a producer on the most recent sequels.)

Neve Campbell is joined in the cast by Isabel May of the Yellowstone prequel 1883, who has signed on to play Sidney’s daughter; Mckenna Grace of the Ghostbusters franchise, Grace’s Ghostbusters co-star Celeste O’Connor, Gen V‘s Asa Germann, The Fabelmans‘ Sam Rechner, Pitch Perfect‘s Anna Camp, fellow franchise star Courteney Cox, who reprises the role of reporter / author Gale Weathers, Joel McHale (Community) as Sidney’s husband Mark Evans, Ethan Embry (The Devil’s Candy), and Mark Consuelos (Riverdale). Mason Gooding and Jasmin Savoy Brown are back as Chad Meeks-Martin and Mindy Meeks-Martin from Scream (2022) and Scream VI, and Scream (1996) and Scream 3 killers Matthew Lillard and Scott Foley are somehow back as well. Roger L. Jackson, who has provided the voice of Ghostface in all of the previous films, is doing the same for this one.

Are you disappointed that Patrick Dempsey had to miss out on Scream 7 and has been replaced by Joel McHale as a different Mark? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.

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