Scream 4 Trilogy Plans (& Beloved Character Death) Revealed by Writer

Scream 4, stylized as SCRE4M, probably has the most shocking Ghostface reveal in the entire franchise. However, the slasher film had a different outcome than the original plan, with Emma Roberts’ character, Jill, initially planned to appear in more than one installment. 

Scream writer Kevin Williamson (who had penned the first, second, and fourth installments, as well as Scream 7) revealed the trilogy plans for Scream 4, including killing off one of the most beloved characters from the franchise earlier than expected.

What beloved Scream character was meant to die in the Scream 4 trilogy? 

Scream 4 was envisioned as the first film in a new Scream trilogy, although the plan did not come to fruition. Roberts’ Jill was meant to survive her fate in the fourth installment, and Dewey Riley — the fan-favorite Woodsboro sheriff played by David Arquette — would have been killed, had the initial plan been materialized.

In a conversation with CinePOP, Williamson shared:  “Scream 4 was about Emma Roberts and her character, Jill. So Jill, in my original conceit, survived and went to college. And in college, she got away with it all. All the killings in Scream 4, she got away with it. And she was now the new Sidney, and she was the new celebrity victim — and she was loving it.” 

He continued, “Someone figured her out and started killing all the people in her life. In order for her not to be exposed as the killer, she had to find the killer. And that was Scream 5.”

While the fourth installment received mixed reviews upon its release in 2011, the slasher movie eventually received the attention it so deserved. It would have been an interesting premise if Jill survived, but all at the expense of Dewey’s death — who would soon meet his demise in Scream 5. 

“[For] Scream 6, now that Gale Weathers is trying to build a life without Dewey, because I would have killed Dewey, too. Yes, I had planned to kill him as well,” said Williamson. “[Gale] was trying to rebuild her life, and it was about her finding love. In a weird way, she goes through exactly the same thing Sidney went through in Scream 1. She’s dating a man . . . is he or isn’t he the killer? She doesn’t know. It was sort of the reverse.”

Arquette’s Dewey will return for Scream 7, set to hit theaters on Friday, February 27.

Source: Comingsoon.net