Names and faces
■ Actress Neve Campbell indicated that she would be open for returning to the “Scream” horror franchise “under the right circumstances.” Campbell had starred in the first five installments as protagonist Sidney Prescott, before leaving the series ahead of the filming for “Scream 6.” She had said in 2022 that the money she was offered “did not equate to the value I have brought to the franchise.” Speaking to Indie-Wire on Saturday from the red carpet at the BAFTA Tea Party in Beverly Hills, Calif., Campbell said that “I made a statement several years ago, and it was the reason I didn’t do the film at the time.” Indicating there was a chance for her to return, Campbell said the motivation for her decision was that “I just really felt the need to stand up and say that I don’t think that I would have been treated that way if I was a man carrying a franchise for 25 years. So if they were to choose to come back to me, that would continue to be my takeaway.” “Scream 7” is supposedly in the works, but factors ranging from departures of actresses Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega to director Christopher Landon leaving the project as well.
■ Actress Devery Jacobs recently addressed a critic who questioned whether two Indigenous characters should exist in the Marvel Cinematic Universe at the same time, leading to an attempted explanation from the critic herself. Jacobs, who is Mohawk, has played several Native American characters in recent Marvel productions. She first starred as the studio’s first Mohawk hero, Kahkori, in Season 2 of the “What If…?” animated series. She also plays Bonnie, cousin of the title character of their live-action “Echo,” played by Menominee actor Alaqua Cox. In a series of videos posted by YouTube movie critic Grace Randolph, Randolph questioned the decision to introduce Kahkori less than a month before the launch of Echo, calling the two characters “repetitive” because both are of Native American descent and have similar powers. Jacobs dismissed Randolph’s criticism, telling The Hollywood Reporter “Would somebody go up to a white guy and say, ‘This is the one perspective for a white story that is out there’? Would somebody go up and say that?” Jacobs added that she felt “the story of Kahkori … is astronomically different from that of Maya Lopez in ‘Echo.’”