A Wild Fan Theory About Who the Killer in ‘Scream 7’ Is, Based on the Trailer

The Scream 7 trailer is out and it shows a Ghostface with ties to Sidney Prescott’s coming-of-age in Woodsboro. The killer attacks a couple at Stu Macher’s house, now an AirBnb, and then sets his (or her) sights on terrorizing Sidney and her daughter. As a superfan of the franchise, I couldn’t help but noticed a few clues that may reveal the identity of the Ghostface killer in Scream 7. I don’t have any inside information, so there are no spoilers ahead — just wild speculation.

Here is the trailer if you missed it:

Theory: The killer in Scream 7 is Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard)

The trailer shows that Stu Macher’s home has been turned into an AirBnb. Ghostface arrives and terrorizes a couple of guests before saying “I’m gonna burn it all down” and setting fire to the home. Who would be that triggered by Stu’s home being turned into a tourist destination for obnoxious fans and looky-loos? Stu Macher would. His voice can even be heard at the end of the trailer saying “This is gonna be fun.”

A funny bit of foreshadowing for this could be that in Scream (2022) Matthew Lillard has a cameo as Ghostface wielding a flamethrower in Stab 8. This scene also shows a YouTube video on the sidebar that is titled “Did the real-life Stu Macher survive?” This in-movie theory is later referenced by Jasmin Savoy Brown’s Mindy Meeks-Martin character, who says some believe Stu is alive and living in hiding.

We do know that Matthew Lillard is officially part of the Scream 7 cast. This doesn’t necessarily mean Stu is alive as David Arquette and Scott Foley are also returning and their characters, Dewey Riley and Roman Bridger, are deceased. All three deceased characters could return as part of a flashback — OR — the casting of Arquette and Foley could be a red herring to distract from the casting of Lillard. If Lillard was the only “deceased” character to be cast, it would more obviously create fan speculation that his character may have survived and might be behind the Ghostface mask again.

A brief history of the “Stu is alive” theory

After Scream VI, the franchise was completely upended by the firing of its star Melissa Barrera for voicing support for Palestine on social media. Scream VI ended with a cliffhanger hinting at the possibility of Barrera’s character Sam Carpenter turning into the series villain. Skeet Ulrich had even returned to encourage Sam, his character’s daughter, to follow in his psycho killer footsteps.

Scream 7 writer Guy Busick said Barrera’s firing made the concept they’d been working on completely unusable and they had to create a new story from scratch. At that point, franchise creator Kevin Williamson was brought on to direct and write the Scream 7 screenplay with Busick. What do we know about what Williamson wants to see in the Scream movies? His original treatment for a Scream trilogy included Matthew Lillard’s return in Scream 3 as Ghostface.

In Williamson’s idea for Scream 3, the cold open would have been Sidney and a friend being attacked in her house. Sidney outsmarts the killer and ends up killing him. When he is unmasked, “Ghostface” is a complete stranger, a random “fan” of her life story. The movie would later reveal that Stu Macher was alive and in prison. From there, he influenced a group of high school students to follow in his footsteps. Lillard was even under contract to return. However, after the Columbine High School massacre in 1999, the studio wanted to steer the franchise away from a school setting and Scream 3 was reworked to take place in Hollywood. This unused idea could have been recycled when Scream 7 suddenly needed a plot that centered around Sidney Prescott again.

Matthew Lillard has been one of the most vocal proponants of the “Stu is alive” theory. In an interview with Us Weekly, he argued that because his character was 17-years-old at the time of Scream (1996), he could have served 25 years in prison and be released in time for Scream 7 (2026). In the interview, he even offers to “throw a TV on my face right now” to prove that it is possible to survive such an event.

Is Stu alive and will he be revealed as Ghostface in Scream 7? We’ll find out together when Scream 7 hits theaters on 2.27.26.

Further reading:

• Matthew Lillard Insists “Stu is Alive”
• Matthew Lillard Was Hired to Return as Stu Macher in ‘Scream 3’, Here’s What Went Wrong
• Ghostfaces in the ‘Scream’ Franchise, Ranked