A special new Christmas-themed poster for the upcoming Scream VI has been unveiled. As we already know, the upcoming sixth installment in the long-running slasher franchise will take the action to New York City, a significant change in setting for the series, which has famously been restricted to the fictional town of Woodsboro. The Scream series began in 1996 with director Wes Craven’s acclaimed original, which introduced audiences to the unique brand of meta-horror that the franchise would become synonymous with. Craven returned to direct three more films in the series, before it was rebooted last year with Scream.
A first trailer for Scream VI teased the change in location, and reminded fans of another slasher movie, Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan. The new poster doesn’t feature any actual visuals from the movie, and is more of a commemorative piece. The poster’s tagline declared that “It’s Scream time in the city.”
A couple of interesting details revealed themselves upon closer inspection of the poster, which shows Times Square but with every billboard displaying the face of the iconic Ghostface killer. A banner in the bottom left corner of the poster reads “Blackmore University,” a fictional school whose existence was discovered by fans who stumbled onto the film’s set some time ago. “Wrongly Accused: The Musical,” reads a banner in the bottom right corner of the new poster, perhaps teasing a new plot thread.
Fans of the franchise would remember that the fifth film ended with the new protagonist Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera) discovering that she is the illegitimate daughter of Billy Loomis, the original film’s killer. She flees to New York in the new movie to escape the stigma associated with the town of Woodsboro. The franchise was given a much-needed reboot with the fifth Scream, directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett of the Radio Silence collective. They are returning to the helm of the upcoming film.
The fifth Scream, which was released in 2022, was met with positive reviews and commercial success. It grossed $140 million globally, kick-starting a terrific year for Paramount that peaked with the release of Top Gun: Maverick which remains 2022’s biggest film with $1.49 billion globally.
Scream VI will see the return of sisters Sam (Barrera) and Tara (Jenna Ortega), alongside Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown), Chad (Mason Gooding), Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox), and Kirby (Hayden Penettiere). New cast members include Jack Champion, Dermot Mulroney, Josh Segarra, and Henry Czerny. Roger L. Jackson is also returning as the voice of Ghostface.
Slated for a March 10, 2023 release, the film is written by James Vanderbilt and Gary Busick and is based on characters by Kevin Williamson. You can get a better look at the new poster here, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
