Trend Details

Melissa Barrera Fired from Scream VII following her Comments on Israel-Hamas War

Melissa Barrera will no longer be featured in Scream VII, as the acclaimed actress was dropped from the project after a series of social media posts about the Israel-Hamas War. By: Dylan Low

She posted her comment on Instagram saying, “Gaza is currently being treated like a concentration camp,” she continued, “Cornering everyone together, with nowhere to go, no electricity no water … People have learnt nothing from our history. And just like our history, people are still silently watching it all happen. THIS IS GENOCIDE & ETHNIC CLEANSING.”

A spokesperson for Spyglass, which is the production company backing the Scream franchise, released a 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.”

Following her recent comments and post, it led to Spyglass swiftly ending ties with the In the Heights actress. Barrera has been outspoken regarding the situation, releasing dozens of posts regarding the war since Hamas’ invasion of Israel back on October 7th.

Barrera helped bolster the franchise with the 2022 Scream feature film, accumulating $137.7 million internationally and bringing together generations of cast members in the franchise. Barrera played Sam Carpenter who was the lead of that film and the older sister of Tera, played by Jenna Ortega. Barrera also appeared in Scream VI, which premiered in March and earned up to $168.9 million at the global box office.

Happy Death Day producer Christopher Landon will be assuming directing duties on Scream VII from filmmaker company Radio Silence. Filming has yet to start, following sluggish developments in the midst of the actors and writers strikes. At present, Spyglass is expected to amend their filming plans after Barrera’s departure. Paramount had taken charge of distribution for their previous few instalment films and is anticipated to continue distribution for the upcoming seventh film.

“Everything sucks. Stop yelling,” filmmaker Christopher Landon publicly expressed his opinion about Barrera’s exit on social media platform ‘X’. “This was not my decision to make.”

To never miss a story — sign up for Viral Weekly free newsletter to stay up-to-date with compelling TV and Film news and views.

Back to Listing