Jenna Ortega and Melissa Barrera Officially Join ‘Scream 6’
Both Jenna Ortega and Melissa Barrera, who were first introduced in 2022’s “Scream” reboot/sequel hybrid, are officially returning for “Scream 6,” which is set to hit theaters in March 2023.
Fans of the franchise will remember Ortega and Barrera as Tara and Sam Carpenter, respectively. The Carpenter sisters were two of the film’s four total survivors, and the upcoming sequel “will continue with the four survivors of the Ghostface murders, as they leave Woodsboro behind and begin a new chapter,” according to a statement from Paramount Pictures.
Mindy (played by Jasmin Savoy Brown) and Chad (played by Mason Gooding) are also expected to return for “Scream 6,” as are directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, who took over for “Scream” mainstay Wes Craven following his death in 2015.
Jenna Ortega has been keeping very busy the last few years, with prominent roles in Netflix’s “You,” “Iron Man 3,” “Jane the Virgin,” “X,” and much more. In addition to her starring roles in the most recent “Scream” films, Ortega can also be seen in Tim Burton’s upcoming “Wednesday,” a riff on the Addams Family that focuses on the family’s most beloved character.
Responding to a question about why she took the role, Ortega told Empire, “A big part of the reason I signed on is because she’s technically a Latina character and that’s never been shown or represented. As someone who struggled, and still struggles to this day, with some sort of feeling of representation or relatability in mainstream media and film and television, I recognized this was an opportunity for me.”
Barrera, on the other hand, recently co-starred in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “In the Heights” and Starz’s popular series “Vida,” which ran for three seasons from 2018 to 2020. “It’s very nice not having to justify your presence or your nationality when they give you a piece of paper,” she told the Los Angeles Times, “because for a long time they labeled us, they put a stamp on us in the movies.”
“Scream 6” is expected to hit theaters in March of 2023.
