Jenna Ortega has dropped out of “Scream 7” due to her “Wednesday” Season 2 shooting schedule, Variety has confirmed. The news of her exit comes one day after her co-star Melissa Barrera was fired from the horror movie due to Barrera’s social media posts about Israel and Palestine.
Ortega’s departure was not influenced by Barrera’s firing and was in the works months ago before the SAG-AFTRA strike began. The “Wednesday” star must travel to Ireland from the spring through summer in order to shoot Season 2 of the hit Netflix series. Ortega also needs to wrap filming on Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice 2,” which had a few more days to shoot before it was interrupted by the SAG-AFTRA strike.
Ortega and Barrera co-starred as sisters Tara and Sam Carpenter in the 2022 revival of “Scream” and this year’s sequel “Scream 6.” They brought life back to the dormant horror franchise along with new and returning stars, and “Scream 7” was announced with director Christopher Landon.
Barrera was fired from “Scream 7” on Tuesday due to her social media posts supporting Palestine. “Scream” producer Spyglass Media Group said, “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.”
Deadline Hollywood broke the news.
More to come…
