Being in a franchise can mean something else when you are no longer attached. Scream 5 had a surprise death with Dewey, who David Arquette played in the films, making Scream VI the first film without the character in the 27-year-old franchise. On the red carpet for the Peacock series Mrs. Davis, he spoke to Variety about what it felt to watch a new Scream movie and not be in it.
Yes, David Arquette watched Scream VI, but he had mixed emotions watching an entry since the death of Dewey. He “loved it” but found it to be “sad.” He acknowledged that he had a serious case of “FOMO.”
“It was hard for me to do it, but I also knew I wanted to see it. I loved it. It was sad. I had lots of FOMO.”
David Arquette felt “FOMO” watching Scream VI, the first movie since the death of Dewey
Scream 5 surprised longtime fans by killing the character. In a scene at the hospital, he saved Tara (Jenna Ortega), Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera), and Richie Kirsch (Jack Quaid) from Ghostface. When going in for the kill, Ghostface got the jump on in and gutted the beloved former cop. He had been close before as he had plenty of moments of getting stabbed, like other surviving main cast members. No other legacy characters have been killed off at this point.
Post-release, David Arquette spoke to Empire about his reaction to reading the script of Scream. When he read that he would die, he had to “walk around and process it.” Although he felt it was a “deep cut,” he “understood” the decision from directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, who returned to helm the sixth installment.
Dewey may be gone from the franchise, and Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott was absent from the latest film, but it has not stopped it from making a killing at the box office. It has received the best reviews and box office performance since Scream 2.