‘Scream 6’: Deputy Dewey Done Dirty? – ‘I’m Still So Sad,’ David Arquette Says About Death [Exclusive]

After a slew of near misses and last-minute escapes, Deputy Dewey Riley met an untimely death in Scream 5. That means after five films, it is unlikely actor David Arquette will appear in Scream 6. So does he feel that writers “stabbed” him in the back, by killing off such an enduring character?

“Oh my God, I’m so sad about it still,” he told Showbiz Cheat Sheet with a chuckle. “But I totally understand there’s a real need in sort of that world to kind of break hearts, to build up the emotion of the audience. So I get it.”

Why was David Arquette sad to see Deputy Dewey killed on ‘Scream’?

Dewey became an anchor character for the franchise and is beloved by many fans. And while Arquette understands why writers had to kill Dewey, he also views the role from a practical standpoint too.

“It’s just for me as a working actor, it’s one of those things that I was like, alright, every few years, we’ll do a Scream and that’ll kind of us keep us floating away,” he explained.

He also just has a lot of love for Dewey. “It’s not only a character I love to play that I love to be a part of but now it’s financially painful too though,” he said. “I’m also happy that it had such a great run and Dewey was part of this sort of world. I got to work with Wes Craven. Matt (Bettinelli-Olpin) and Tyler (Gillett) and the new directors were amazing. So I definitely just feel grateful. Gratitude is my main feeling about it.”

Despite being killed off thanks to Ghostface, he joked about how Dewey could possibly return to the series someday. “I’ve been scanned digitally, I’m sure they could bring me back,” he laughed.

Neve Campell also won’t return for ‘Scream 6’ but for another reason

Another main character who also won’t appear in Scream 6 is Sydney Prescott played by Neve Campbell. Contract negotiations broke down between Campbell and studio executives and she was finished with being underpaid for her role in the franchise.

“I did not feel that what I was being offered equated to the value that I bring to this franchise, and have brought to this franchise, for 25 years,” she told People in August.

“And as a woman in this business, I think it’s really important for us to be valued and to fight to be valued,” she said. “I honestly don’t believe that if I were a man and had done five installments of a huge blockbuster franchise over 25 years, that the number that I was offered would be the number that would be offered to a man.”

She added, “And in my soul, I just couldn’t do that. I couldn’t walk on set feeling that — feeling undervalued and feeling the unfairness, or lack of fairness, around that.”

David Arquette would love to see Neve back on ‘Scream’ someday

“There’s still plenty of other (Scream) films and I would love for them to bring Neve back,” Arquette said about Sydney Prescott in Scream. “I think that’s definitely something exciting for the audience to look forward to in the future.”

“But I understand also you want to have a really good role to chew into and not just be sort of a part of something which is such a pivotal aspect of the series,” Arquette added. “I think if they do bring her back they should have that understanding of the role that they gave her.”

Scream 6 is scheduled to hit theaters on March 10, 2023.