It’s a good time to be a Scream fan. The seventh installment in the long-running horror series is just around the corner, with a release date set for February 27, 2026. And, although we’re still waiting for a debut teaser, we have a good idea of what to expect from the Kevin Williamson-helmed production that promises to return to the franchise’s roots and pick up the story of Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott. But, in the meantime, one streamer is encouraging audiences to watch the original trilogy of films, as Peacock will add Scream, Scream 2, and Scream 3 to its upcoming slate of Halloween-centered features. Arriving just in time for the spookiest and most ghoulish season of all, the first three movies move from meta to even more meta with legendary horror filmmaker Wes Craven at the helm.

There’s plenty to love about the original trilogy of Scream, as each film delivers something different yet familiar to audiences. The first one will forever be a classic thanks to not only Williamson’s well-penned story and Craven’s direction, but also its, at the time, up-and-coming cast. Along with Campbell, who was already a well-defined Hollywood star at the time, the original film also featured the likes of Courteney Cox (who was enjoying the fame of Friends), David Arquette, Matthew Lillard, Rose McGowan, Skeet Ulrich, and Drew Barrymore.

The follow-up film moved the action from the small fictional town of Woodsboro to Ohio, where the main cast is attending college. Building out yet another stacked cast, the film saw the return of those who survived the first movie, as well as Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Sarah Michelle Gellar, Timothy Olyphant, Jada Pinkett Smith, Laurie Metcalf, and Jerry O’Connell.

‘Scream 3’s Film Within a Film

The most meta of them all, Scream 3 was the first time that Williamson stepped aside as the writer, with Ehren Kruger taking over. Williamson’s absence can definitely be felt in the tone of the movie, which picks up in Los Angeles where Sidney is living a quiet life and trying to recover from the events of the first two movies. In an incredibly meta twist, performances by Parker Posey, Scott Foley, Jenny McCarthy, Deon Richmond, Emily Mortimer, Carrie Fisher, Patrick Dempsey, and others mimic the characters of the franchise as they make a doomed movie centered around the slayings titled Stab 3.

While it’s hard not to love the three movies that would follow, there’s something truly magical about the original trilogy of Scream films, which will arrive on Peacock October 1.

Release Date

December 20, 1996

Runtime

112 minutes

Writers

Kevin Williamson

Producers

Bob Weinstein, Cary Woods, Cathy Konrad, Harvey Weinstein