Why Joel McHale Being Cast in the New ‘Scream’ Movie Is Pissing Off Fans
Joel McHale seems to be everywhere these days: Animal Control, those creepy flashbacks in The Bear, countless interviews in which he’s badgered about the current status of the Community movie. Well, now Chevy Chase’s former wrestling opponent is set to star in the seventh entry in the Scream franchise. But a lot of fans aren’t happy about it.
It was recently announced that McHale has been cast as the husband of Neve Campbell’s character Sidney Prescott. While Campbell wasn’t in the last movie due to a pay dispute, Sidney did briefly appear in the fourth sequel to Scream, which was, confusingly, also called Scream.
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The Sidney of 2022 is happily married, has a couple of kids, and is generally enjoying a life free from being constantly prank-called by costumed serial killers.
We also learn that Sidney’s husband’s name is “Mark.” For Scream fans, that name seemed to indicate that Sidney had married Mark Kincaid, the brooding homicide detective from Scream 3 played by Patrick Dempsey. While there weren’t any overtly romantic scenes between the two characters (and he isn’t mentioned at all in Scream 4), the threequel did wrap up with Mark joining Sidney at her house, along with Gale and Dewey, to watch a movie that hopefully didn’t involve knife-wielding murderers.
The directors of the 2022 Scream, Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli, confirmed in an interview that the Mark that Sidney is hitched to was indeed meant to be Detective Mark Kincaid. Of course, we never see him in the movie, presumably because Patrick Dempsey doesn’t make cameos for free. Still, this brief exchange was a nice little Easter egg for fans eager for confirmation that two fictional characters hooked up between movies.
But now McHale has been cast in the role of Mark? Are we supposed to believe that the former host of The Soup is the star of Grey’s Anatomy and Meatballs III: Summer Job? Well, not exactly.
The upcoming Scream movie isn’t being helmed by the same filmmaking team behind the last two sequels. Instead it's being directed by Kevin Williamson, who penned Scream, Scream 2 and Scream 4. Perhaps not coincidentally, the guy who didn’t write Scream 3 doesn’t seem to be too interested in further exploring the emotional depths of its handsome cop character. Although, according to Entertainment Weekly, Dempsey was in talks to join the film last fall.
For some reason that fell through, and McHale has now landed the gig instead. But he’s playing some other guy who just so happens to be named “Mark,” thus preserving the internal continuity of the Scream-verse.
Judging from the social media reaction to this news, devoted Scream fans seem to be feeling some combination of confusion, anger, and disappointment.
We’ll have to wait and see how it all plays out as plot details are still under wraps. If the Police Academy series is any indication, Scream 7 will involve some sort of mission to Moscow.
