K.T Simpson
Speaking ahead of this week’s release of the highly-anticipated Scream VI, directors were asked about an incessant rumor regarding an original Scream (1996) player possibly returning for a future installment – if not this one.
Despite being killed off in Wes Craven’s unarguable classic (who survives a TV being dropped on their head, after all!?), there have been persistent rumors that Matthew Lillard’s character Stu Marcher is still alive.
Lillard himself told ET he’s very keen to see the zany Stu make a return, too. “I would love to come back,” he said, before explaining that the original shooting script for Scream 3 was set to reveal that the character had survived the events of the first movie and had been living in secret.
“It was originally conceived that Stu was running a collection of kids in high school that did horrible things. And while the script was changed as a result of the Columbine High School shooting, “I would like to argue, on behalf of the Stu fans out there, that he is still alive.”
Lillard’s Scream co-star Skeet Ulrich seems to think there’s an opportunity for a Stu return too.
“Isn’t everything possible in this world? I hope so,” Ulrich told ET recently. “I really hope so. He’s an incredible human being, and I know he wants it bad.”
Meanwhile, Tyler Gillett told the site “anything’s possible” at this point. “We brought back Billy (Ulrich) as a hallucination,” he said, while producer Chad Villella added that “he’s also a fan-favorite, so maybe. Who knows?”
Even executive producer Kevin Williamson hasn’t ruled it out. “I mean, I would say never but I have always been wrong when I do,” he said, admitting that “you can’t say never,… There’s always that twin brother theory,” he said.
