David Arquette To Return As Deputy Dewey Riley In Scream 7

Something strange — well, stranger than the usual Ghostface stabby-stabby antics — is going on in Woodsboro. As production ramps up on Kevin Williamson’s upcoming Scream 7, the last few weeks have seen both Matthew Lillard’s Stu Macher and Scott Foley’s Roman Bridger confirmed to be making a comeback in the slasher saga‘s seventh instalment, despite both having been pretty clearly killed off when we saw them last. And now, per Deadline‘s reporting, we’re getting word that David Arquette’s fan favourite Deputy Dewey Riley is returning to the fray too as the horror franchise continues to bring back its dead.

The last time we saw dear Dewey, husband of Courteney Cox’s Gale Weathers, he was being turned into a human pincushion in Scream by newly minted Oscar winner Mikey Madison. How exactly he’ll be returning as OG franchise writer Kevin Williamson readies his large move into the director’s hotseat remains to be seen, but Deadline do state that Arquette, Foley, and Lillard’s re-entry into Scream’s knotty lore will be done “in a surprise way.” In fairness, we don’t know what other kind of way there could be to do it, especially given the 50-pound CRT TV dropped on Stu Macher’s head at the end of Scream and the bullet Dewey popped in Roman Bridger’s bonce in Scream 3, but there’s certainly ample room for speculation. Could it be flashbacks? Ghosts? Or even, as some crackpot theorists have posited (we are the crackpot theorists), some sort of AI involved shenanigans to torment Woodsboro’s survivors? The possibilities are as endless as they are ludicrous.

With Arquette’s casting announcement, Scream VII‘s roster of modern and legacy stars is looking mighty impressive. At the time of writing, joining him and the aforementioned series returnees above in Williamson’s movie will be Neve Campbell, Mason Gooding, and Jasmin Savoy Brown, alongside previously announced newcomers Isabel May, Celeste O’Connor, Asa Germann, Mckenna Grace, Sam Rechner, Anna Camp, Joel McHale, Mark Consuelos and Ethan Embry. We’ll find out who lives, who dies, and who stays dead/undead when Scream VII hits cinemas on 27 February, 2026. You’re not scared, are you?