Matthew Lillard says his Stu Macher Scream 7 return is "a gamble of legacy," but he was "openly campaigning" for a comeback for years

Ghostface in Scream 7
(Image credit: Paramount Pictures)

Matthew Lillard will soon be returning as Stu Macher in Scream 7, which, despite being something he's wanted for a long time, still gives him some nerves.

"It didn't really matter to me in what capacity Kevin [Williamson, director and original writer] wanted me to come back. At the end of the day, I think the reason I was so excited about it was 'cause I had been fighting to come back. I was openly campaigning for years," Lillard told Entertainment Weekly.

But, he's still worried how it might go down with fans of the long-running slasher franchise. "There was so much anxiety, so much fear, so much insecurity about stepping back into something that, frankly – and it's yet to be determined – could go really poorly," he added. "I mean, if people hate the movie, hate me, hate Stu, question why I came back, all of that weighs on me heavily… It's a gamble of legacy. I wouldn't want to hurt the legacy at all. And if I thought it would, I wouldn't be here."

Stu and Dewey, of course, are both dead – so how they return remains to be seen. But, Scream 5 and Scream 6 brought back Skeet Ulrich's Billy Loomis via hallucinations, so we could be looking at something similar here.

Molly Edwards
Deputy Entertainment Editor

I'm the Deputy Entertainment Editor here at GamesRadar+, covering all things film and TV for the site's Total Film and SFX sections. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English.

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