When does the new Scream movie take place in the timeline and how long has it been since the original Scream movie? As a series of meta-slasher movies, the Scream franchise has not generally done too much timeline-shifting during its four-movie run. So far, each Scream movie has been set in or around the time it was released, although this may soon change with 2022’s Scream reboot.
The original self-referential slasher movie Scream was released in December 1996, for example, and its events occur in October of the same year according to a memorial seen in Scream 4. Scream 2 was released in 1997, and its events take place in 1998 with the slight shift forward into the future occurring to push the characters into college. Scream 3 takes place shortly after in 1999, and the sequel was released in early 2000.
However, while it is easy to discern that 2010’s third sequel is set in that year, it's trickier to discern when Scream (2022) occurs in the timeline for several reasons. Numerous characters in the late, great Wes Craven’s final movie Scream 4 state that it has been ten years since the events of Scream 3, meaning the outing is set in 2010. However, the first trailer for 2022’s Scream gives a few less obvious hints toward the year that the forthcoming movie is set in. A house phone seen early in the teaser lists the date as “9/23,” but this could refer to September 23 and not September 2023. However, there are other hints in the Scream trailer to suggest that the film takes place in 2023.
For one thing, the victims seen in the trailer are mostly teens and one character states that “the attacks were all on people related to the original killers.” This could imply that an entire generation has elapsed since the events of the first film in 1996, meaning these teens (born between 1998—2002) would be offspring of the killer’s relatives. Craven’s Nightmare On Elm Street franchise saw Freddy Krueger hunt down the children of those who killed him, but that supernatural slasher operates on less realistic rules than the Scream series. Nonetheless, since Scream 4 featured a killer related to the final girl Sidney herself, it adds up that the intervening decade would have given characters like Randy, Stu, and Billy time to raise teenage children of their own (if they had survived the earlier movies).
However, there is another reason to believe that 2022’s Scream is set in 2023. Not only would this add a year to the age gap between Sidney, Dewey, and Gale and the new victims, the lack of any social distancing and masks (other that of the slasher movie villain) implies 2022’s Scream will not address the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Since the movie was in production during the height of COVID-19’s impact, the Scream reboot may be set in 2023 to avoid characters having to discuss the pandemic. It's no guarantee that Scream’s reboot is set in 2023, but the trailer’s glimpse of a phone date, the time necessary to open a generational gap, and the lack of COVID-19 references all imply the movie may be jumping ahead into the future a little.