Original Scream star, Jamie Kennedy, doesn't want Sidney to be the killer in the new movie, Scream 5. Wes Craven's meta-slasher film released in 1996 follows Neve Campbell as a teenager named Sidney Prescott who becomes the target of a masked serial killer known as Ghostface. While many thought the film series was over after 2011's Scream 4, the franchise is back for a fifth installment also titled Scream with original stars Campbell, Courteney Cox, and David Arquette all returning alongside new characters played by Melissa Barrera, Dylan Minnette, and Jack Quaid.
Kennedy's character, the local video store clerk named Randy Meeks, was integral to the original Scream movie. He was essentially a stand-in for the diehard slasher fans watching the film who were aware of all the rules and tropes that the genre generally follows. Randy was able to make it out of the first film alive, but met his demise at the hands of Ghostface in the sequel. With another Scream movie on the way, multiple theories are abound regarding how the fan-favorite character could return and who the new killer might be.
Though Kennedy hopes that Scream 5's secret killer isn't Neve Campbell's Sidney, as he revealed in an interview with Screen Rant promoting Scream's 25 Anniversary and release on 4K Ultra HD. Kennedy admitted to disliking the theory currently swirling around the internet that Sidney is the new Ghostface killer since she is an "empathetic person who's had a hard life" who wouldn't be capable of such heinousness. Read what Kennedy had to say below:
I wouldn't want to see Sidney as a killer. No, I don't think that's her at all. I think she's just an empathetic person who's had a hard life. But I think if Scream keeps going, I don't want to be this person, but somebody may have to go. Somebody's got to go.
Ever since the release of Scream 2022's trailer, fans have been fervently speculating about who the new killer is. While Sidney has obviously been a popular choice, it is also quite a contrived one given the character's history as the heroine of the franchise. In the past, a few horror films have been able to convincingly turn their protagonists into surprise villains, but such a twist would go against the fabric of the Scream franchise and how the character of Sidney has been developed so far.
Another interesting theory as to who the killer might be actually involves Kennedy's character. Since Randy was killed in Scream 2, he's likely not returning for the latest installment, but a prevalent theory suggests that Randy's secret offspring might actually be the killer, considering the trailer reveals that Ghostface is targeting people related to Stu (Matthew Lillard) and Billy (Skeet Ulrich). All these questions will be answered in due time when Scream 5 releases in theaters on January 14.
