Did Jenna Ortega drop out of ‘Scream 7’ in support of Melissa Barrera?

Jenna Ortega, who was a lynchpin draw in getting Scream VI to the horror franchise’s best opening grossing, is not expected to return.

According to entertainment outlet Deadline, the decision is not related to the fallout from Melissa Barrera‘s firing over that actress’ social media posts on the Hamas-Israel conflict. Ortega and Barrera played sisters in 2022’s Scream and this year’s Scream VI respectively as Tara and Sam Carpenter.

The report said Ortega’s exit from the next Scream was discussed before the actors strike. A script for Scream VII is not ready yet, and actress has to head to Ireland in April to shoot the second season of Netflix series Wednesday.

Ortega received a Comedy Series Actress Primetime Emmy nomination and a Golden Globe Comedy TV Actress nom for her turn as the title character of Wednesday.

The Scream franchise with a seventh sequel stands to hit the $1 billion global mark at the box office. Through six films, it stands at $911M.

Earlier in response to Barrera being dropped from Scream VII, Spyglass issued the statement, ““Spyglass’ stance is unequivocally clear: We have zero tolerance for antisemitism or the incitement of hate in any form, including false references to genocide, ethnic cleansing, Holocaust distortion or anything that flagrantly crosses the line into hate speech.”

Christopher Landon, the new director on Scream 7, posted on X, and then removed the Tweet, “This is my statement: Everything sucks. Stop yelling. This was not my decision to make.”