Seasons change, and another Scream movie has cycled through theaters. Scream 7 broke franchise records by clearing the $200 million mark at the box office. Naturally, those numbers have ensured that another Ghostface slasher is barreling down on us, and, truly, there is no place left for us to hide. Now, The Hollywood Reporter reports that Scream 8 is officially in the works, with Poker Face writers Lilla and Nora Zuckerman taking over script duties.
Despite the fiscal success of Scream 7, many critics agree that what was once a hip, modern take on horror has merely become one of the tedious franchises it spoofed. That the new film leaned into nostalgia is no secret, and it reaped some notable rewards for doing so. This turn might suggest that, in the next film, franchise mainstay Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) will be stuck in the same zone she’s been in for the last few films: mourning Dewey (David Arquette), running people over, chasing the latest scoop, and throwing out some killer one-liners along the way.
Or, hear us out… maybe she’s Ghostface.
We’re not the ones who brought this up, OK? Outside of the voice of Ghostface (Roger L. Jackson), Gale Weathers is the only person who’s been in every one of these films, which bodes well for her return. Fan theories that Gale will someday take a turn for the Ghostface are nothing new; many a comments section has bandied about the idea. In fact, in Scream 6, the killer of the hour directly called our attention to the possibility.
As if they had become a sentient Reddit thread, Ghostface tangented about what a great serial murderer Gale would make. Like any good conspiracy poster, this Ghostface even offered up a solid theory for a motive. “You never got to be the leading woman,” they said. “It was always poor, sweet Sidney, sucking up all the oxygen. What did that leave you to be?”
Forever diva Gale immediately replied, “I don’t know, the brains and the sex appeal?”
Let us pause to consider some other reasons Gale might wish to terrorize the public in a stylish mask. Well, there is the small matter that she has been stabbed more times than a pin cushion going all the way back to the year 1996. If Gale comes back for Scream 8, the only near-certainty is that she is going to get stabbed with an unusually cool-looking knife.
There is no question that Gale is made of sterner stuff than we. After all, this is a woman who takes getting socked in the jaw as a sign of a job well done. Still, even Superman would start taking it personally around the sixth or seventh knife wound, and now she’s got nerve damage in her hand, to boot.
Of course, there’s also the devastating personal tragedy that these films have brought down on Gale. After all, she didn’t just lose her husband to these killers, she lost her boyfriend Brooks (Thomas Cadrot) in Scream 6. As of Scream 7, we know she’s also lost her morning talk show, and she’s in a state of necessary rebranding. Sure, we know that Gale will always land on her feet, but what if she doesn’t? The most believable reason for Gale to go full Ghostface is really always going to be if she finds a way for it to boost her ratings.
Gale notably isn’t blood shy, or really anything shy. In fact, she’s been out here choosing violence from Day One. Her whole introduction in this franchise is her borderline terrorizing a teenager who lost her mom to violent crime. Now, there has been a lot of growth for Gale along the way. Yet, even as recently as Scream 7, the first time we see this woman, she’s running her car into Ghostface. Long story short, if Gale was going to do some murders, she probably wouldn’t feel too bad about it.
Then again, Gale’s charisma is one of Scream’s greatest gifts. It may be that she’s simply too good for this franchise to lose to a true heel turn.
Gale’s sheer individuality and her commitment to revealing unpleasant truths would probably make it pretty hard for her to want to hide under a mask that she’d have to share with dweebs like Richie Kirsch and Roman Bridger. In the end, perhaps the greatest blockade in Gale’s path to Ghostface is not morality, but that it would likely kill any remaining chance of reviving her morning talk show.
On the other hand, Sidney did punch her that one time, and, frankly, some people have become Ghostface for a whole lot less of a reason than that.