There are plenty of reasons for an actor to turn down a role. They could not like anyone involved and not want to spend months hanging out with those people. The script might not be up to snuff, and if that’s the case, there’s (often) not much hope for the film itself. Money plays a huge factor. Either of the prior examples could be made up for with the appropriate offering of stanky cash. No matter the reason, the answer often given for why an actor does not appear in a movie is broad: Scheduling Conflicts.
The term “scheduling conflicts” sounds broad because it is, but it also sounds specific enough to be believable. Everybody in Hollywood is always doing something, even if that thing may not be very important, real, or take much of their time. Still, if a project is important or reliant enough on an actor, things can be moved around and exceptions can be made. There is always a way to avoid “scheduling conflicts” if the parties want to badly enough. That did not seem to be the case for Scream 7.
The new film in the long-running franchise is unique because it had to shift its narrative after firing one of the franchise’s stars, Melissa Barrera, because she spoke out against the genocide in Gaza. After that, the producers ran back to Neve Campbell, whom they had already spurned by not offering her the money she deserved for Scream 6 despite being the lead of four of the previous films. They got her money right this time as they signed her on for a new film directed by the franchise’s original screenwriter Kevin Williamson. Since those two signed on, the crew behind the new movie has continued to grow.
Stars from the past and present of the franchise have signed on for the new slasher flick. Actors newer to the films like Jasmin Savoy Brown and Mason Gooding are back for more. Meanwhile, Scott Foley and Matthew Lillard are returning, despite both (debatably) dying in a previous entry (debatably for the latter, not the former). Then there are the new additions, like Anna Camp, Ethan Embry, Mckenna Grace, and Joel McHale. They will all be squaring off with (or helping?) Ghostface, with McHale being the most notable.
The Community star is important because he will play the husband of Sidney Prescott (played by Campbell). That matters because many fans had assumed Campbell’s character had married Detective Mark Kincaid, played by Patrick Dempsey in Scream 3. Instead, McHale will play a different Mark, which makes it feel like the folks behind the movie had written themselves into a corner by insinuating Sidney’s happy ending in an earlier film. She’s still happy, albeit with a different Mark, and now we know why.
Dempsey was recently interviewed by Variety and was asked why he didn’t end up in the new film. Despite teasing in October that he was waiting on the script to “see what happens,” Dempsey was later revealed to not be in the film and told Variety why, saying, “It just didn’t work out and we were dealing with the fires and everything that was going on and the schedule didn’t work out, unfortunately.” Scheduling!
Dealing with the wildfires and not wanting to film a movie during that makes a lot of sense. This may be a time when scheduling just means what it means. I’m going to take Dempsey at his word here.