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The filmmakers behind Scream 6 discuss whether or not Scream 4’s Jill – played by Emma Roberts – could return to the franchise in the future.
Scream 6’s creators have discussed the potential return of Scream 4 killer Jill, the character played by Emma Roberts. Jill, the niece of consumamte final girl Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) only appeared in the 2011 film, as she was killed at the end of the film once it was revealed she was responsible for the newest Ghostface massacre. However, Scream 6, which opened in theaters this weekend, already reversed the supposed fate of Scream 4 character Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere) to have her return as an FBI agent investigating a new spate of killings in New York City.
This week, Dread Central sat down with the filmmakers behind the newly released Scream 6, including co-directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett and producer Chad Villella. Given the fact that Kirby has returned and Roberts has expressed interest in returning to the franchise, they were asked how dead Jill really was. While Villella expressed certainty that she was dead, Gillett teased that “everybody can come back.” Read their full quote below:
Has Kirby’s Retconned Death Opened the Floodgates for Scream Legacy Characters?
Up until now, Scream has not been a franchise prone to retconning and bringing back characters for fan service. When a character has died, they have stayed dead, though the actors sometimes reprise their roles, like Jamie Kennedy’s appearance via videotape as his dead character Randy Meeks in 2000’s Scream 3. This could change in the future, if bringing back the fan-favorite character Kirby is the first portent of more character reprisals to come.
However, despite what Gillett says in his quote, Scream 6 had some restraint when it came to legacy characters. Ahead of the film’s release, rumors abounded that the killer would be Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard), the supposedly dead killer from the original film. That did not come to fruition, showing that, as much as the legacy characters are still important, the filmmakers are keen to keep the franchise looking forward when it comes to Ghostface’s identity.
It seems much more likely that Roberts’ Jill would return in a similar way to Skeet Ulrich’s Scream 1996 killer Billy Loomis. The actor has appeared as a digitally de-aged hallucination several times in both Scream 2022 and Scream 6. However, Scream 7 hasn’t been greenlit as of yet, so this all could change when the film is announced and its premise is eventually revealed.
