Hayden Panettiere Will Return For ‘Scream 6’
The ranks of the surviving characters got a bit smaller in this year’s Scream. But the franchise is proceeding directly into another sequel — the sixth film in the series to date — and what’s a movie like this without fresh blood?
To that end, producers are actually bringing back a fan favorite from an earlier Scream who wasn’t in the most recent Scream. (That title makes things so confusing, doesn’t it?) That’s Hayden Panettiere as Kirby, one of Ghostface’s victims in Scream 4, the first time the franchise was given a legacyquel back in 2011.
In that film, it seemed like Kirby was killed by the dastardly Ghostface during the big, bloody climax. But her fate was left slightly ambiguous, and this year’s Scream (again, not to be confused with Scream) revealed that Kirby did in fact survive the events of Scream 4.
And so Panettiere will now return as Kirby in the upcoming Scream 6, which they will probably call Scream just to mess with us. Per The Hollywood Reporter Panetierre will join the cast which will also include the most recent Scream’s survivors, played by Melissa Barrera, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Mason Gooding and Jenna Ortega. The only plot details they have claim the sequel “continues with the four survivors of the Ghostface killings as they leave Woodsboro behind and start a fresh chapter.” Like the last Scream, this new one will be directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett.
Scream 6 is currently scheduled to open in theaters on May 31, 2023, barely a year after the release date of Scream. Which, again, is not Scream.