Skeet Ulrich, the actor who portrayed the original Ghostface, Billy Loomis, has shared his perspective on the Scream franchise. Following the 30th anniversary of the series, Ulrich has placed the most recent installment, the 2026 blockbuster Scream 7, at the bottom of the legacy he helped start in 1996.
Ulrich’s evaluation, shared in October 2026, reflects a preference for the franchise’s earlier years and the recent “requel” era.
The Decision to Rank Scream 7 Last
Ulrich’s placement of Scream 7 at the bottom of his ranking is tied to the creative shift the franchise took following the 2023 firing of Melissa Barrera. According to Ulrich, the seventh film suffered because it abandoned the three-film story arc centered on Sam Carpenter, the daughter of his character, Billy Loomis.
Ulrich stated that the Sam Carpenter narrative was essential to his character’s ongoing legacy within the modern films. The departure from that planned arc, which saw Sam grappling with the “hallucination” of her father, left the actor critical of the final product. Scream 7, which arrived in theaters on February 27, 2026, was directed by the franchise’s original writer, Kevin Williamson, and pivoted the story away from the Carpenter sisters entirely.
Legacy and Technical Returns
While Scream 7 moved on from the Sam Carpenter storyline, it reportedly leaned into the series’ history through other methods. The film featured an AI deepfake scheme to bring back deceased legacy characters, including Scream 3 antagonist Roman Bridger and Scream 2’s Mrs. Loomis.
Ulrich’s own relationship with the original film remains unique among the cast; despite his character’s status as a horror icon, he has only watched the 1996 Scream three times as of October 2026. His loyalty remains firmly with the original vision and the scrapped narrative that he felt honored the Loomis name.
