The Scream franchise has given much more attention to Billy Loomis over his partner Stu Macher, and their character traits explain why. The Scream series has returned to theaters with the fifth entry, simply titled Scream. As the franchise has continually done, Scream 2022 tells a legacy story that brings its story back to the first Woodsboro killing spree in the original Scream.
Over the course of the movie, Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera) reveals that she is the daughter of original Ghostface Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich). Sam's father even periodically haunts her in ghostly visions seen in reflective surfaces, with Ulrich returning as Billy for these scenes. While Billy gets a lot of attention in Scream's meta story on the rules of a "re-quel", his old partner in crime Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard) is referenced considerably less.
The only significant mention of Stu in Scream 2022 comes when the returning Dewey Riley (David Arquette) mentions him as Billy's old accomplice. Stu being secondary to Billy has been something of a tradition in the Scream sequels. However, it's perfectly understandable when looking at how their serial killer partnership functioned.
In the original Scream, Billy was the clear mastermind of his and Stu's Ghostface duo. Billy knew how to convincingly wear the mask of a decent kid. Though it was known that he'd internalized the trauma of his parent's divorce, Billy used this to his advantage to make the Woodsboro community sympathize with him. Even when he was first caught by the police, he knew how to talk his way out of his situation. He's also cloned the cell phone of Neil Prescott (Lawrence Hecht), the father of his girlfriend and Scream's long-running heroine Sidney (Neve Campbell), which threw the cops off his trail.
On the other hand, Stu was another story. Stu was a much weirder teenager with the personality of a cartoon. Once he and Billy were revealed as the killers, it was clear as day that Billy was the leader of the two. Scream 3 even revealed how much of a minion Stu had been under Billy. The newest Ghostface, Sidney's half-brother Roman Bridger (Scott Foley) was the man to reveal to Billy the adulterous affair Sidney's mother Maureen (Lynn McRee) had engaged in with Billy's father that led to his parents splitting up. As Roman explained, he advised Billy to "have a partner to sell out in case you get caught" in his rampage as Ghostface. Stu was just that partner chosen by Billy in Scream.
Though Stu was planned to return for Scream 3, the similarity of his intended plot to the Columbine High School shootings led to the story being changed. Stu hasn't been ignored outright by the Scream sequels, but the franchise has still been very clear about what his role was. Stu himself chalked his alliance with Billy up to "peer pressure", while he's remembered by Dewey in Scream 2022 as a "Looney Tune". The Scream sequels primarily credit Billy as the man behind the Ghostface legacy because of how he and Stu worked together, with Billy as the brains of the operation.