Matthew Lillard Calls His Return as Stu Macher in Scream 7 a “Legacy Gamble” After Years of Advocating for It

Matthew Lillard is set to reprise his role as Stu Macher in Scream 7, a return he’s eagerly anticipated for quite some time, though it still makes him a bit anxious.

“It didn’t really matter to me in what capacity Kevin wanted me to come back. At the end of the day, I think the reason I was so excited about it was ’cause I had been fighting to come back. I was openly campaigning for years,” Lillard shared.

However, he does have concerns about how fans of the iconic slasher series will react. “There was so much anxiety, so much fear, so much insecurity about stepping back into something that, frankly – and it’s yet to be determined – could go really poorly,” he noted. “I mean, if people hate the movie, hate me, hate Stu, question why I came back, all of that weighs on me heavily… It’s a gamble of legacy. I wouldn’t want to hurt the legacy at all. And if I thought it would, I wouldn’t be here.”

Scream 7 will also feature Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott, Courteney Cox’s Gale Weathers, Jasmin Savoy Brown’s Mindy Meeks-Martin, Mason Gooding’s Chad Meeks-Martin, and David Arquette’s Dewey Riley alongside Lillard’s Stu.

Given that both Stu and Dewey are dead, how they make their return is still a mystery. However, with Scream 5 and Scream 6 bringing back Skeet Ulrich’s Billy Loomis through hallucinations, a similar approach could be in play here.

Scream 7 is set to hit theaters on February 27, 2026.