Lillard “had no idea” Stu’s voice would be the ending tag of the film’s trailer, but says, “I have not told a single soul about how or why Stu comes back.”

Matthew Lillard shares how he learned Stu Macher would return in Scream 7: ‘I screamed’

Lillard "had no idea" Stu's voice would be the ending tag of the film's trailer, but says, "I have not told a single soul about how or why Stu comes back."

By Nick Romano

Nick Romano is a senior editor at ** with 15 years of journalism experience covering entertainment. His work previously appeared in *Vanity Fair*, Vulture, IGN, and more.

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December 6, 2025 12:00 p.m. ET

Neve Campbell's Sidney Prescott in 'Scream 7'; Matthew Lillard's Stu Macher in 'Scream'. Credit:

Jessica Miglio/Paramount Pictures; Dimension Films/Courtesy Everett

- Matthew Lillard shares the story of how he found out that Stu Macher would return for *Scream 7*.

- Lillard says he "had no idea" Stu's voice would be the ending tag of the *Scream 7 *trailer.

- "I have not told a single soul about how or why Stu comes back," the actor says.

The last thing we hear in the trailer for *Scream 7* is the voice of Matthew Lillard's Stu Macher, one half of the dual Ghostface killers of the original 1996 movie. "This is gonna be fun!" Stu says.

Lillard tells ** he "had no idea" Paramount (the studio) or Spyglass (the production company) would include him as that ending tag. "The only power of anything in this business is saying yes or no, and once you say yes, you have zero control," he says.

While promoting his first *Five Nights at Freddy's* movie in 2023, the actor expressed his doubts around Stu's return to *Scream*. He and his cohort, Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich), were killed after their reign of terror in Woodsboro during the events of that first film. However, fan theories persisted about maybe he didn't actually die.

Now, while promoting *Five Nights at Freddy's 2* this week with Ulrich, he shares with EW the moment he found out that Stu's comeback was for real.

Matthew Lillard and Skeet Ulrich in 'Scream'.

"I was on a walk. I was on a business call with my company, Find Familiar Spirits," the actor recalls. "I put them on hold because Kevin Williamson called me in the middle of the day."

Williamson wrote the first *Scream* movie, as well as *Scream 2* (1997) and *Scream 4* (2011). He now directs *Scream 7*, which will tell a new story about how Neve Campbell's Sidney Prescott and her family are terrorized by a new Ghostface.

Matthew Lillard surprises Comic-Con with reveal that 'Scream' costar Skeet Ulrich is joining 'Five Nights at Freddy's 2'

'Scream 3' star Scott Foley confused by his 'Scream 7' return: 'Not sure how it's going to work'

"I was like, 'That's really weird,'" Lillard says of getting that Williamson text. "I had just seen him three weeks earlier at a game night at Mike Flanagan's house." (Lillard featured in Flanagan's Stephen King-based movie *The Life of Chuck* and will star in the filmmaker's *Carrie* TV series for Amazon.) "So the moment is immortalized in my mind. I picked up the phone and we had small talk for five minutes, and it was like, 'Do you want to come back?' I literally was like, 'Oh my!' I, like, screamed."

Lillard admittedly has been keeping the fan theories about Stu alive for years. He points to how the Radio Silence filmmaking team of Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, who directed the fifth and sixth movies, set up all these Easter eggs. However, Williamson himself threw cold water on that fire. Now Lillard knows that was all for show.

"When he asked me, I was like, 'I thought you didn't want me in the film,'" Lillard remembers telling the *Scream 7* director. "He's like, 'I wanted you to shut up because I want you in the film.'"**

The Ghostface killer of 'Scream 7'.

Jessica Miglio/Paramount

Now, we still don't know *how* Stu will return for *Scream 7*. Ulrich's Billy Loomis is definitely dead and he returned in spectral form to stalk his daughter, Melissa Barrera's Samantha Carpenter. Perhaps Stu will serve a similar function. Fans, of course, have their alternate theories, the prevailing one involving A.I. and deepfakes.

There are also some clear references to Stu in *Scream 7* that we know of for sure. The trailer reveals the Macher house, which served as the destination for the finale bloodbath of the first movie, is now being rented out on Airbnb. Meanwhile, Isabel May plays Sidney's teenage daughter, Tatum, named after Sidney's high school best friend and Stu's girlfriend from *Scream* (Rose McGowan's character).

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"I will tell you, if I have a secret, I am 90 percent gonna tell someone that I have a secret," Lillard says. "And the weird thing is, I have not told a single soul about how or why Stu comes back." That goes for Ulrich, who confirms he's not coming back for *Scream 7*.

"I've been vocal about that. I'm not," Ulrich says. "When we talked about coming back for 5, it was a three-picture arc for Billy Loomis to slowly turn his daughter into the killer. Obviously, those things didn't pan out given certain things that happened. But, no, I know nothing about the seventh."

Lillard is ultimately pumped for people to see the new direction for *Scream 7*. "It's testing through the roof," he says. "I think the last regime of actors and creatives were incredible. I think they did a great job. I think the movie was in great hands. I think Kevin's just taken it back in a way towards the original roots. I think fans are gonna be really happy."**

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