Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega gave Scream fans a new duo to root for. After playing the Carpenter sisters in Scream and Scream VI, the actresses separately left Scream 7 before production could begin. The Wednesday star’s departure raised eyebrows because it was shortly after Melissa was fired. Initial reports claimed that Jenna left due to scheduling conflicts, but was that the truth?
News47.us unpacks the entire story about Jenna and Melissa’s departures from Scream 7 here.
Jenna stars in two of the Scream franchise movies: the 2022 and 2023 films.
Initially, it was reported that Jenna left Scream 7 due to scheduling conflicts with other productions, such as Wednesday. However, the actress revealed the truth during an April 2025 interview with The Cut.
“It had nothing to do with pay or scheduling,” Jenna told the publication. “The Melissa stuff was happening, and it was all kind of falling apart. … “If Scream VII wasn’t going to be with that team of directors and those people I fell in love with, then it didn’t seem like the right move for me in my career at the time.”
Not only did filmmaker Christopher Landon leave the film, but directors Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin also stepped down after Jenna exited. .
Melissa was fired by Spyglass Media because of her public statements about the Israel-Hamas conflict. One of her Instagram Stories in 2023 included a message that read, “Gaza is currently being treated like a concentration camp. Cornering everyone together, with nowhere 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.”
