Scream, the long-running slasher franchise, is still powering on following the release of Scream VI earlier in the year. In 2022, the series returned after more than a decade away with the requel-inspired Scream, commemorating twenty-five years since the original and revived the franchise for an all-new generation of horror fans.
Scream 7 is now in the works, and despite the ongoing Hollywood strikes, the production pursued leads for a new director, which led them to Christopher Landon. Known for his work on Happy Death Day and Freaky, his arrival into the Scream franchise has been long anticipated, in more ways than one.
The job “came out of the blue for me,” Landon told SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show (H/T ComicBook for the story). “My understanding is that there were conversations happening for some time. But I think it was just an opportunity that really arose because the other directors who did the last two films, Tyler and Matt, they wanted to do something else.”
“They were ready to kind of do something different. That’s when they obviously had to find someone new, and I’ve known Kevin Williamson, who wrote the original film, for a long, long time and he’s a friend. I think he threw my name into the hat and everybody kind of said, ‘Yeah, that makes sense. That seems to make sense.’ And I was just thrilled that I got that call because it felt very, it felt like kismet, it felt like a thing that like was always meant to be.”
Later, Landon revealed that he had a hand developing the first Scream film after reading an original spec script while working as an intern at a production company. “They bought it and they made it. So it’s this weird full circle moment to find myself about to direct the next one after I was like weirdly the first person to read it,” Landon said.
