[Editor's note: The following contains spoilers for Scream 2022.]The new Scream movie is absolutely loaded with connections to the past films. There Sam’s (Melissa Barrera) link to Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich), Randy’s (Jamie Kennedy) niece and nephew, Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and Chad (Mason Gooding), Amber (Mikey Madison) calling Stu Macher’s (Matthew Lillard) house home sweet home — the list goes on and on. But there are also a handful of smaller story details that might only amount to mere mentions, but completely reshape things for particular characters outside the events of this film. One of the most striking of the bunch in that sense? It’s revealed that Sidney’s (Neve Campbell) husband and the father of her children is Mark, and that would be Mark Kincaid (Patrick Dempsey) from Scream 3.
Just in case you need a refresher, Scream 3 sees Sidney coming out of hiding after receiving a call from the killer and traveling to Hollywood where she gets involved in the attacks centered around the production of Stab 3. The detective on the case? That would be Dempsey’s Mark Kincaid. Yes, he’s mighty focused on his work — even calling the scariest movie he’s ever seen “my life” — but his partner Wallace (Josh Pais) quickly detects Mark’s feelings for Sidney.
Even though both Sidney and Mark make it out of Scream 3 alive, there’s no mention of him in Scream 4. At that point, one could assume they lost touch and moved on. However, in the fifth installment, Mark’s name is repeated a number of times, IDing him as Sidney’s husband.
During my interview with Neve Campbell alongside Scream 2022 co-stars Courteney Cox and Melissa Barrera, I absolutely had to ask how that relationship was rekindled. How did Sidney wind up reconnecting with Mark? Campbell laughed and replied, “These are really hard questions,” and admitted, “I haven’t seen these movies in so long!” That’s when Barrera chimed in to make sure the room knew, “Mark was Patrick Dempsey.” Campbell added, “You know what’s weird? I played his sister in Grey’s Anatomy after that.” (You can watch the conversation for yourself at 06:29 in the video at the top of this article.)
While Campbell didn’t seem to have Mark on the top of her mind like a certain someone who’s obsessed over the details of this franchise a little too much over the years, yours truly, it still makes for an excellent addition to the new film. Not only do we finally get closure for Sidney’s love life after Billy tried to murder her and after she watched poor Derek (Jerry O’Connell) die right before her eyes, but the thought of Sidney having a husband and kids very successfully motivates her Scream 5 actions. One might think someone would run away from the masked killers with knives, but Sidney’s determination to end the bloodbath once and for all for the sake of her children is an especially believable motivation.
Looking to hear more from Campbell, Cox and Barrera on the new Scream movie? You can catch our full conversation in the video interview at the top of this article and also give our extended chat with Barrera a watch using the link below.