Original Scream star Matthew Lillard says he’s “absolutely” available to reprise his role for the upcoming sequel Scream 5, even if the prospect seems unlikely. In the original installment of the iconic horror franchise, Lillard memorably played the part of Stu Macher, one of two teenage boys revealed to be one of the masked Ghostface killers in the movie’s finale. Those who’ve seen the Wes Craven classic may also remember Stu is killed in the end by Neve Campbell’s final girl, Sidney Prescott, though that hasn’t stopped Lillard from holding out hope to revisit the Scream series.
Recently speaking with TooFab about the Scream franchise, Lillard was directly asked if he’d be open to appearing in the upcoming fifth movie. “Yes, yes, I’m available, yes, yes!” Lillard responds, clearly excited about the possibility. “There’s nobody that wouldn’t want to come back and reprise a role they got to do when they were a boy and be able to do something different as a man would be exciting. You just don’t get that opportunity often,” he adds. Still, also admitting that he “can’t imagine that’s the way they’ll go,” Lillard makes it clear that seeing Stu’s return in Scream 5 is probably not going to happen.
Obviously, bringing back Matthew Lillard as Stu would present some major creative challenges for the filmmakers, as it would have to be explained that the character actually survived getting smashed in the face and electrocuted by a television set in the original movie. Stranger things have certainly happened in horror franchises, but that still might be a tough pill to swallow for longtime fans of the series. When we consider how David Gordon Green’s Halloween reboot retconned the ending of John Carpenter’s original movie, we should also acknowledge the possibility that Scream 5 could alter the ending of the first Scream by revealing that Stu had lived.
Oddly enough, the idea of bringing Stu back into the Scream series this way had actually been considered by Wes Craven many years ago. Digging a little deeper into the behind-the-scenes history of the Scream franchise, Lillard has previously said that an original treatment for Scream 3 included a twist ending of Stu controlling the murders from his jail cell, similarly revealing the character to have survived the original Scream. Because Stu would be using high schoolers to carry out his ordered killings, the concept was scrapped entirely following the events of the Columbine massacre. This led to a complete rewrite of the Scream 3 concept, leaving Stu’s return on the cutting room floor.
One other possible way to resurrect Stu for Scream 5 would be to finally bring the story into the realm of the paranormal, a departure from all of the previous entries in the series. Perhaps Ghostface is unmasked with a zombie Stu’s face underneath? As entertaining as that might be, it seems unlikely to happen, given Neve Campbell’s insistence that the filmmakers are looking to do Wes Craven and the Scream franchise proud. For her part, Campbell has also confirmed that she has had discussions with producers about coming into the movie, and David Arquette has said he’d be up for returning as Dewey as well. This news comes to us from TooFab.
