"Just throw away the whole movie at this point": Boycott Scream 7 calls erupt as Melissa Barrera petition goes viral

Melisa Barrera, the Mexican-born actress who played Sam Carpenter in the fifth and sixth installments of the Scream movie franchise, has been reportedly ousted from the cast of the next movie due to her pro-Palestine posts on Instagram.

Fans of the movie have been visibly enraged and disappointed since the news broke out on November 22. A petition to recast Barerra in her role for the 7th part of the horror/slasher film has been created by Louie Hayes.

Louie wrote that the petition stemmed from injustice and frustration, adding that Spyglass and Paramount are currently on an “unwarranted power trip” as they dismissed Melisa Barrera for sharing her political opinion.

Spyglass Media Group, the film's production company, was said to show a “blatant disregard” for its audience’s attachment to the actors playing the characters in the movie. Louie said that the franchise has already been built on the iconic leads and gained popularity because of them, removing any actor without cause is disrespectful to the fans and unprofessional as well.

Aside from the petition, fans on social media have called for a boycott of Scream VII, as Melissa Barrera likely won't be appearing as Sam Carpenter in it. One X user wrote that since Melisaa has been fired and the directors have planned on killing Jenna Ortega's character in the movie, with two of the main leads gone, they should just discard the movie.

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"Boycott Scream 7" trends on X as fans are furious about Melissa Barrera's removal

Fans of the Scream franchise blasted Spyglass and distributor Paramount for removing Melissa Barrera from the cast. They claimed that these companies were curbing the actors' right to free speech and standing up for what's right.

Some people also condemned Spyglass, claiming that the company likely supports "genocide" as it was intolerant towards Melissa Barrera, who spoke up against the supposed ethnic cleansing in Gaza. Many people wrote that they would not be watching the upcoming Scream movie and trended "Boycott Scream 7" on X.

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What led Spyglass to fire Melissa Barrera?

The 33-year-old actress has been vocal about her support for the Palestinians as well as the innocent Jewish people since the beginning of the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict. Melissa Barrera quite regularly posts about the issue on her Instagram stories.

However, the posts that likely led to Spyglass Media Group removing her from the Scream VII movie were the ones where she compared Gaza’s treatment by Israel to a “concentration camp." A Spyglass spokesperson suggested that another one of Barrera’s posts preached an antisemitic trope, claiming the Jewish people control the media.

Melissa Barrera wrote in the Instagram story in question that she had been actively looking for information and videos on the Palestinian side of the conflict, reasoning that the Western media only broadcasts Israel's side of the story.

"Why they do that, I will let you deduce for yourself," she added.

She further wrote that despite the social media algorithm customizing every user's "Discover" page on Instagram as per the kind of content they usually watch or prefer to watch, Barrera's feed only had videos from Israel's perspective.

"Censorship is very real. Palestinians know this, they know the world has been trying to make them invisible for decades,” she wrote.

Following all of Melissa Barrera's Instagram stories about her support for the Palestinians, a spokesperson from Spyglass Media Group said in a statement on Tuesday, November 21:

“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.”

However, it is also important to note that Melissa Barrera extended her empathy and prayers for the Jewish people as well. Elsewhere on her IG story, she wrote:

“My heart goes out to all the Jews that are feeling stuck in the middle, speaking up against the atrocities being committed against Palestinians and being made to feel like traitors to the Jewish community. I'm not Jewish but I have a lot of friends some that l even consider family."

I've already been called an antisemite for wanting Peace and Freedom for Palestinians. Why is it that wanting justice for the oppressed automatically gets interpreted as hating all Jews?" she added.

Barrera further urged everyone to understand that, just as all Palestinians do not represent Hamas, all Jewish people do not represent the Israeli government either. The now-former Scream actress clarified that she was not blaming or hating on an entire religion because of what a few of them were doing, rather, she firmly reinforced her solidarity with everyone caught in the middle of the crossfire.