'Scream 7' Director's Response to Melissa Barrera Firing Sparks Outrage

Scream 7 director Christopher Landon has been slammed by people online for the way he responded to the news of the studio firing Melissa Barrera from the movie.

Barrera led the past two successful Scream reboot-slash-sequels, Scream and Scream VI. She played Sam Carpenter, the older sister to Jenna Ortega's Tara who is revealed in the first movie to be the daughter of original Ghostface killer Billy Loomis.

The actor was fired from the latest installment of the film because of pro-Palestinian statements she had made on social media that the studio, Spyglass Media, viewed as antisemitic during the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.

On October 7, Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on southern Israel. Hamas said the attack was retribution for worsening conditions for Palestinians under Israeli occupation.

Israel launched hundreds of airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, followed by extensive ground operations. At least 1,200 people have been killed in Israel, with over 200 people taken hostage, while more than 12,700 Palestinians have been killed, with many more injured and over 1.5 million internally displaced in Gaza, according to the Associated Press.

Landon originally posted to his @creetureshow account on X, formerly Twitter, and deleted the post thereafter. He wrote: "This is my statement: [broken heart emoji] Everything sucks. Stop yelling. This was not my decision to make."

His statement hasn't been good enough for people online, with many people calling it "weak" and "tone-deaf." Some even suggested he should leave the project in solidarity with Barrera while she's being slandered for standing "against genocide."

Newsweek reached out to representatives for Landon and Barrera for comment via email on Wednesday.

"Christopher Landon's statement was so tone deaf my god. Absolutely no backbone if you see your lead actress being treated this way and you don't immediately show solidarity and drop the film. You're a coward idc [I don't care]," one person wrote.

Another X user responded: "Deleting it pretty instantly too after being called out is extremely telling as well. Not even trying to add on and at least admit he should've said more or at least say he stands with Melissa. But instead just simply deleting it. It's so upsetting."

"Christopher Landon acting like he feels bad for Melissa but he's gonna continue to stay attached and will call it a 'dream come true' when it comes to promoting the film... this was a decision he was and will continue to be complicit in," someone else posted.

A fourth added: "Based on his public statement, the likelihood that Christopher Landon is capable of making anything resembling a work of art is close to zero."

However, other fans of the franchise have stood up for the director.

"Christopher Landon had NOTHING to do with what happened to Melissa. Leave that man ALONE," one said.

"I feel bad for Christopher Landon (saw his tweet), who I'm a fan of and who deserves the shot to make a kick a** Scream movie. This wasn't his call but now he's saddled with this situation where everything around the movie feels negative now unless this decision is reversed," said another.

This comes after Barrera has been regularly posting to her Instagram account in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war. "Gaza is currently being treated like a concentration camp," she wrote in one post on Instagram stories. "Cornering everyone together, with no where to go, no electricity no water ... People have learnt nothing from our histories. And just like our histories, people are still silently watching it all happen. THIS IS GENOCIDE & ETHNIC CLEANSING."

Spyglass Media said in a statement provided to Variety: "Spyglass' stance is unequivocally clear: We have zero tolerance for antisemitism or the incitement of hate in any form, including false references to genocide, ethnic cleansing, Holocaust distortion or anything that flagrantly crosses the line into hate speech."