Scream 2 writer regrets killing off major character Randy Meeks

(Image credit: Dimension Films)

Scream 2 writer Kevin Williamson has revealed he regrets killing off Randy Meeks in the sequel – and why the character had to die in the first place. Williamson wrote the script for the original Scream film and also penned the fourth installment in the franchise.

In Scream 2, Jamie Kennedy's Randy Meeks is brutally killed by Ghostface mid-film. The death was particularly shocking because Randy infamously knew all the rules of surviving a horror movie and was a veritable fountain of knowledge on the genre, so his bloody fate meant no one was truly safe.

"I thought if you kill someone really important to the audience in the middle, it just ups the stakes," Williamson told Entertainment Weekly. "Everything's off the table. I knew we weren't going to kill Sidney, I knew we weren't going to kill Gale or Dewey. Those three characters, for Scream 2, were safe, and so I had to look to the secondary characters."

But, had Williamson known the long future ahead for the franchise, he might have spared Randy after all. "I love Randy, I would have given him a much bigger life had I known this franchise was going to live and live," he continued. "I would have loved for him to be a legacy character. At the time, I thought it would just be the punch in the gut the audience needed at that time, to really get mad, and get mad at the killer."

Randy did make one final appearance in the franchise, though, popping up in Scream 3 via a pre-recorded video to explain the rules of a trilogy closer to Sidney and co.

The self-aware slasher series continued last year with Scream 5, styled simply as Scream, and Scream 6 is coming on March 10, 2023. Neve Campbell will not be reprising her role as Sidney, but Courteney Cox is returning as Gale Weathers.

While you wait, check out our guide to the very best horror movies to fill out your watchlist.