Matthew Lillard Says He’s ‘Slightly Terrified’ To Return to ‘Scream’ Franchise

Matthew Lillard is taking another stab at the Scream franchise, but he has some anxieties about his upcoming return.

Joining original castmates David Arquette, Jamie Kennedy, Dermot Mulroney, and Skeet Ulrich for a panel moderated by PEOPLE at 90s Con over the weekend, the actor opened up about his hesitations about returning in Scream 7 and his fears of ruining the franchise’s legacy.

“I will say, I can’t say anything about it, obviously. But I am very excited and slightly terrified to be back because all I can do is really screw up a legacy that we have,” Lillard said. “I could really suck, and so that’s my fear. My fear is that I come back and sort of punish something that I could never have touched and been just fine. I hope I don’t ‘F’ it up for everyone.”

Lillard played the horror-movie obsessed Stu Macher in Wes Craven’s 1996 classic. In the film, Stu was among Sidney Prescott’s (Neve Campbell) group of friends, and revealed at the end of the film to be one of the two Ghostface killers brutally murdering Woodsboro teens. When fans last saw him, he was attempting to murder Sidney alongside his fellow Ghostface killer Billy Loomis (Ulrich). Billy was ultimately killed with a gunshot to the head by Sidney, while Stu seemingly died when Sidney dropped a TV on his head, though there have been long-standing theories that he could still be alive.

That original slasher flick went on to spawn a six-film franchise, with the seventh installment set to be released by Paramount on Feb. 27, 2026. It was announced in January that Lillard would be returning to the franchise in the upcoming movie, though it remains unclear how he will return and whether he will be reprising his role as Stu. Some theories suggest he could return as Stu’s long-rumored, but never mentioned, twin, while others think he could appear in flashbacks or hallucinations.

Teasing his return in Scream 7 at MegaCon in Orlando back in February, Lillard joked, “I come back as a fairy godmother. It’s gonna slay.”

The Scooby-Doo star is one of several Scream legacy cast members returning in Scream 7. Courteney Cox is set to reprise her role as Gale Weathers in the upcoming film, and after sitting out Scream 6 over a pay dispute, Campbell will be back as the franchise’s final girl. Other returning stars include Arquette (Dewey Riley), Scott Foley (Roman Bridger), Jasmine Savoy Brown (Mindy Meeks-Martin), and Mason Gooding (Chad Meeks-Martin).