Posted in: Movies, Paramount Pictures | Tagged: Paramount Pictures, sarah michelle gellar, scream, scream 2

Sarah Michelle Gellar Reflects on Her Scream 2 Experience

Scream 2 star Sarah Michelle Gellar reflects on working with Wes Craven, praising the late director’s kindness, support, and impact.

28 years later, Scream 2 is still argued by plenty of fans as the franchise's best sequel, or at least the one that comes closest to topping the original. Released in 1997 (just one year after the first entry), Wes Craven's follow-up went bigger in just about every way imaginable. The film's glossy cinematography, college-campus chaos, and self-aware murder mystery hijinks helped cement the series' 'no one is safe' tension, while the set pieces pushed the slasher playbook into something even more elaborate (and mean). Even now, the sequel's heightened chase-and-kill beats keep getting referenced by fans and filmmakers, from Gale Weathers' sound booth sequence to Cici Cooper's tense cat-and-mouse death outside the sorority house.

This week, Sarah Michelle Gellar revisited that experience on the Shut Up, Evan podcast, reflecting on how surreal it felt to step into the Scream world while she was also in the midst of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Sarah Michelle Gellar Shares Her Respect for Scream 2 Director Wes Craven

Gellar explains, "I just remember being surrounded by Neve Campbell and Courteney Cox [on set]. It was just incredible." She also explained that the scheduling was intense, adding, "I was working on Buffy during the day. We shot a couple of weeks in Atlanta, then they had to move the production back to L.A. because everyone was on their respective shows." She then used the moment to spotlight Craven, whose steady hand shaped the franchise's tone across four films. "I can't say enough about Wes Craven. Just, what a kind and incredible director, and friend, and cheerleader he was. Even though I was tired [during my shoot], and it was a long night, he just made it the best."

All these years later, it's still pretty clear that several of the sequel's biggest moments work because Craven and the cast were totally locked in, regardless of the reshoots, chaotic schedules, and script leaks that only made everything even more complicated. Fortunately, Scream is still thriving. The franchise officially returns next month with its seventh installment, which brings Campbell back as Sidney Prescott and pivots back into her family's story.

Scream 7 is set for a theatrical release on February 27, 2026.

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