Christopher Landon is opening up about the turmoil over Melissa Barrera‘s firing from Scream 7, which led to his exit from directorial duties.
In November 2023, Spyglass Media Group slashed Barrera from reprising her role in the seventh installment of the film after she expressed support for Palestinians in the Israel-Hamas war. Many took to social media to blame the director for the decision.
“I got messages saying, ‘I’m going to find your kids, and I’m going to kill them because you support child murder,’” Landon, who has two sons aged five and eight, said in an interview to Vanity Fair. “The head of security at various studios and the FBI had to examine the threats. It was highly aggressive and really scary.”
Landon clarified at that time that it was not his decision to cut ties with Barrera, and reiterated it again in his recent interview, saying, “I did not fire her. A lot of people think I had something to do with it, and it was not my doing. I had no control of the situation at all.”
“I think in the absence of people understanding how Hollywood works and what the hierarchy is, the fans were like, ‘that’s the guy.’ And so they came for me, knives out,” he added.
About a month later, Landon announced he was stepping away from directing Scream 7, which he called “a dream job that turned into a nightmare.” The filmmaker says that Spyglass wanted him to continue leading the project, but “the amount of abuse” he dealt with was not worth it to him.
“I decided I didn’t want to give any part of myself to that,” he says. “For me, it was not worth it. I would rather put my efforts into something else, where I could feel appreciated and respected. The hate and abuse really spoiled it for me, and I lost my love for the idea of going forward.”
He continued, “In the midst of all the chaos, I was grieving the loss of one of my dream jobs. I went through all the stages—I was shocked, I was sad, and then I got angry. To be a part of this legacy, it was really hard to let it go.”
Landon noted that he has “no resentment at all” and hopes new director Kevin Williamson succeeds.
“Kevin probably made a banger of a movie, because he knows it better than anybody. It’s going to be awesome,” he added.
