Melissa Barrera is no longer starring in Scream VII. The actor was dropped from the project after a series of social media posts in the wake of the Israel-Hamas War.
“Gaza is currently being treated like a concentration camp,” she wrote in one post on Instagram stories. “Cornering everyone together, with no where to go, no electricity no water … People have learnt nothing from our histories. And just like our histories, people are still silently watching it all happen. THIS IS GENOCIDE & ETHNIC CLEANSING.”
Spyglass, the company behind the Scream franchise, had no comment.
Barrera helped revitalize the franchise with Scream, the 2022 feature that earned $137.7 million globally and combined generations of castmembers from the franchise. Barrera’s Sam Carpenter was the lead of that film, and the older sister of Jenna Ortega’s Tera. Barrera also starred in Scream VI, which was released in March and topped $168.9 million at the global box office.
Happy Death Day filmmaker Christopher Landon is taking over directing duties on Scream VII from filmmakers Radio Silence. Filming had not begun, and development had been slow amid the actors and writers strikes. Now, Spyglass is expected to recalibrate plans following Barrera. Paramount has handled distribution on the recent installments and is expected to return for the new film.
Earlier on Tuesday, news broke that actor Susan Sarandon had been dropped by talent agency UTA following comments at a pro-Palestinian rally in New York City on Nov. 17.