Joel McHale Joins 'Scream 7' As Neve Campbell's Husband—And Fans Are All Thinking The Same Thing

The Scream 7 casting and production is off to a rocky start.

Deadline first reported that the movie has moved on to a new Mark. Patrick Dempsey's Mark Kincaid character will be nowhere to be seen, and the series has cast Community's Joel McHale as a completely different character, also named Mark, to be the husband of Neve Campbell's character Sidney Prescott.

This announcement came as a shock to many Scream series fans, as it had long been assumed that Sidney Prescott's husband "Mark" was the Mark Kincaid (played by Dempsey), and not another person. Dempsey was first seen in Scream 3 as Kincaid, a Hollywood detective.

Later installments of the series mentioned Prescott's husband Mark, and most fans had assumed that Mark to be Kincaid the detective. Not so, apparently.

What adds to this whole confusion is that last fall, Dempsey signaled that he was at least entertaining the idea of signing up for the Kincaid role again. "I'm waiting on the script," he said back then. "There has been a conversation about it. I haven't seen anything yet, so we'll see what happens."

Guess negotiations failed.

People were quick to express their disappointment.

Others tried to backpedal, saying it wasn't certain that Kincaid was the "Mark" in question.

Others were dubious.

Some people pointed out that folks need to get over Dempsey's original role.

Many people thought this didn't bode well for the future of the Scream series.

The film, which starts production soon, has a tentative opening date in February 2026.