Kevin Williamson, executive producer of "Scream 6," on securing Hayden Panettiere's return to the role of Kirby.
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Hayden Panettiere’s return to Scream

Kirby has made his way back into the fold. In “Scream 6,” Hayden Panettiere’s character, Kirby Reed, will be seen by audiences for the first time since “Scream 4” in 2011, when Kirby Reed was thought to have died after the events of that film. Both longtime fans, who may have been let down by the character’s absence in previous installments, and newcomers to the series will be drawn in by the fact that Kirby is making a comeback. The fact that Kirby is returning will also draw in new viewers.

“We’re like, ‘Where’s Kirby?’ We couldn’t find her. She doesn’t have an agent. She had sort of disappeared,” Kevin Williamson, the executive producer, made the statement to Variety. When he began production on Season 2 of “Tell Me a Story” in Tennessee in 2019, he ran into members of the crew who had previously collaborated with Panettiere on “Nashville.” Williamson was shocked to learn that Panettiere had been living in the same area for many years. Panettiere has maintained a low profile ever since she left Nashville in 2017, so Williamson was unaware that she had been there.

“I called up my producer in Nashville and said, ‘Do you know Hayden Panettiere, by any chance? Because we can’t find her!’ He’s like, ‘Oh yeah, let me call her,'” according to Williamson. “And then they called back and it was like, ‘Alright, found her!'”

Wes Craven, who passed away in 2015, was the director of each of the original “Scream” films, and he directed all four of them. Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, who were also responsible for the direction of the fifth film, which was released in 2022, will once again serve as directors for the sixth film. The fifth film was directed by them. James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick, both of whom have worked in the film industry as screenwriters, are responsible for writing the screenplay. The production staff breathed a sigh of relief when they discovered that they could cast someone else in the iconic part of Wes Craven.

In the sixth film, the roles played by Melissa Barrera, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Mason Gooding, Jenna Ortega, and Courteney Cox will all be played again by the same actors. Dermot Mulroney, Henry Czerny, Samara Weaving, and Tony Revolori are among the new actors who have joined the cast. These new additions are joining the cast of familiar faces in order to bring a fresh energy to the story, and they are allowing viewers to gain an understanding of the dynamic between the old and new characters.

Neve Campbell, who has portrayed Sidney Prescott in each of the five movies, is dissatisfied with the offer that was made to her. As a consequence of this, Neve Campbell made the decision that she would not return for the subsequent installment in the series, which has led to some confusion among the series’ devoted followers.