Jenna Ortega Is Not Returning To ‘Scream 7’ — Here’s Why

Jenna Ortega is no longer part of the Scream 7 cast. The 21-year-old’s exit comes after her co-star Melissa Barrera was fired from the horror movie after social media posts about the Israel and Palestine conflict.

However, Ortega’s exit is reportedly unrelated to her castmate’s recent firing and has allegedly been in the works for months — even before the SAG-AFTRA strike started in July 2020, according to Deadline.

“This has nothing to do with the fallout from Melissa Barrera‘s firing yesterday by Spyglass Media over that actress’ social media repostings on the Hamas-Israel conflict; nor does it have to do with the actress asking for an end to her Scream contract,” writes Anthony D’Alessandro, Deadline’s editorial director.

The actress is leaving the series due to conflicts with Wednesday Season 2’s filming schedule. Production for the next season of the popular Netflix
NFLX
show, directed by Tim Burton, has not yet been publicly announced.

Ortega also needs to finish Burton’s other project, the comedy/horror film Beetlejuice 2, which still has a couple more days to shoot after it was halted by the now-resolved SAG-AFTRA strike earlier this year.

Ortega and Barrera portrayed sisters Tara and Sam Carpenter in the 2022 revival of Scream and 2023’s Scream VI. The seventh installment in the Scream franchise will be directed by Christopher Landon (Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones), (Freaky) and (Happy Death Day).

On Nov. 21, Variety broke the news that Spyglass “quietly” dropped Melissa Barrera from the cast of Scream 7. Barrera allegedly shared one post that accused Israel of “genocide and ethnic cleansing” and reposted an excerpt from Jewish Currents magazine about distorting “the Holocaust to boost the Israeli arms industry,” the site reports.

“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,” the company said in a statement about their decision.

One day later, Barrera posted a statement to her Instagram story where she condemned anti-semitism, Islamophobia and “hate and prejudice of any kind against any group of people.”

“As a latina, a proud Mexicana, I feel the responsibility of having a platform that allows me the privilege of being heard, and therefore I have tried to use it to raise awareness about issues I care about and to lend my voice to those in need,” she continued. “Every person on this earth – regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or socio-economic stats – deserves equal human rights, dignity and, of course, freedom.” Read her full statement here.

Following the news of Barrera’s removal, Landon shared and then deleted a statement on X on Tuesday where he reportedly wrote, “Everything sucks. Stop yelling. This was not my decision to make.”