Scream 3: 10 Things You Didn’t Know

Photo courtesy of Dimension Films

1. Matthew Lillard nearly reprised his role as Stu, the killer from Scream.

As crazy as the idea was that Randy Meeks survived Scream 2 and returned for Scream 3, that was apparently not the only deceased character from the original film that producers contemplated bringing back. Matthew Lillard, who played one of the two Ghostface killers in the first Scream (along with Billy Loomis), revealed in interviews that he had been in negotiations to reprise the role of Stu for Scream 3.

The idea was that Stu had survived the television getting dropped onto his face in Scream, later going to prison for his role in the crimes. In Ehren Kruger’s original planned ending for Scream 3, the killer would have been revealed to be Stu himself, who had been orchestrating attacks against Sidney from prison. Presumably, he would have escaped for the ending scene, in his final confrontation with Sidney.

This plan wasn’t scrapped for being unrealistic, unlike the idea of bringing back Randy Meeks. It was actually the events of the Columbine High School massacre causing studio heads to demand major storyline changes. A former classmate of Sidney’s targeting her, after killing several other teenagers years prior, was apparently hitting too close to home in the wake of that tragedy.

Next: A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010): 10 Things You Didn't Know

So, rewrites were made, and a new character was written in to be tied to the original story as a long-lost relative of Sidney’s. If you ask me, that’s no less crazy than Stu returning, and I’m disappointed they couldn’t have used this original idea, as I could tell you one thing— nobody would have seen it coming.