WARNING: This article contains Scream (2022) and Scream VI spoilers.
Even by the Scream franchise's standards, Mason Gooding's Chad Meeks-Martin is incredibly hard to kill. In 2022's Scream, the Woodsboro High football star took a solid six stabs from Mikey Madison's Ghostface Amber and lived to tell the tale. Then, in last year's Scream VI, our man Meeks-Martin was made a veritable pin-cushion by two Ghostfaces and left to bleed out before miraculously making a final reel appearance on a stretcher, alive and kicking. Now, per Variety's reporting, we have confirmation that Gooding's indestructible Chad will be back to live — and probably very nearly die — another day in Scream VII.
Gooding's return follows fresh off the back of the news that Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Frozen Empire star McKenna Grace is set to join the cast for franchise co-creator and writer-turned-director Kevin Williamson's upcoming sequel. The duo join the previously announced Neve Campbell, whose Sidney Prescott will make a comeback in the slasher saga's latest instalment after missing Scream VI, as well as newcomers Isabel May, Celeste O’Connor and Asa Germann. It remains to be seen whether Courtney Cox's Gale Weathers — or Patrick Dempsey's Mark Kincaid for that matter — will be back too after reports in recent months have linked both with trips back to Woodsboro. At this point though, Gooding's Chad Meeks-Martin is the only one of the franchise's 'Core Four' we know will appear in Scream VII, with Gooding's on-screen sister Jasmin Savoy Brown yet to be confirmed for a return as Mindy Meeks-Martin and both Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega having left the horror reboot last year.
Beyond knowing that Williamson is setting up to occupy the directorial hotseat for the first time with the latest movie in his and Wes Craven's meta horror saga, and that Scream VI co-writers Guy Busick and James Vanderbilt are back on script duties, we know precious little about what Scream VII has in store for us just yet. But with that Friday 27 January, 2026 release date inching ever closer and the casting pieces beginning to click into place after an almost fatal past year for the franchise, we're beginning to let ourselves believe we may have another killer on our hands. Just don't bother coming for Mason Gooding — the man takes a stab like Sean Connery takes a bullet in The Untouchables.