Scream 5: Production to continue after crew members test positive for coronavirus

Production will go ahead on the fifth Scream film after three crew members tested positive for coronavirus.

Filming on what will be the first Scream film in nine years began this month in Wilmington, North Carolina, after Courteney Cox announced in August that she would be reprising her role as journalist Gale Weathers in the currently untitled new instalment.

On Friday (25 September), Deadline reported that three members of the film’s crew had tested positive for Covid-19 while shooting in the city.

However, the crew members were not in the production team’s primary “pod”, which includes actors and directors, meaning that filming did not have to be halted. Under this model, the crew is sorted into different groups, with little mixing happening between them.

The three Scream 5 crew members were immediately quarantined and will undergo more testing, with contact tracing also being practiced.

Had a member of the primary pod tested positive, production would have had to be paused, which is what occurred on the set of The Batman after Robert Pattinson reportedly contracted the virus.

The news of the fifth Scream film was widely celebrated by fans, with David Arquette, Neve Campbell and Marley Shelton reprising their roles.

It will be the first Scream film since the death of Wes Craven, who directed all four outings to date. Craven died of a brain tumour in 2015.

Scream 5 is scheduled to be released on 14 January 2022.