When it comes to Scream movies, one thing is for certain: just about every new character is going to die. If you're a legacy character, you're almost always safe (we're still not ready to talk about Dewey) no matter how many times in how many movies you get stabbed, but if you just popped up in the middle of the franchise, kiss your butt goodbye. Sorry, those are the rules.
There are always exceptions to the rules, however. Over the last quarter-century, there have been a few characters memorable enough to survive the events of their movie, but not important enough to be Ghostface's target. Still, they were integral to their plots, and it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility to see them return to the Scream world. Here are eight characters who lived to tell the tale of their Ghostface nightmare.
C.W. Morgan as Hank Loomis
Everything seems comes back to Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich). As the original Ghostface, he is the one that every other Ghostface wants to emulate, including his own mother. Scream 2 revealed that Billy's own mom (Laurie Metcalf) was behind the sequel's horrors as an attempt to get revenge for her son's death. But what about Billy's dad? Played by actor C.W. Morgan, Hank Loomis appears in the first film as a lawyer arriving at the police station to pick up his son, who is being questioned about a Ghostface attack. Billy denies all involvement and Hank backs him up. He also appears in a short cameo in Scream 3. More important than what we do see with Hank, is what we don't. Hank was having an affair with Sidney's mom, causing his parents to break up. This is the basis for Billy's motive and later part of his mother's as well. If Hank could've just kept it in his pants, it's possible none of this would have ever happened. Could we see him return one day to get his own revenge?
Lawrence Hecht as Neil Prescott
If Billy's dad plays a big role in Scream from behind the scenes, so does Sidney Prescott's (Neve Campbell). Poor Neil. One year before the events of the first film, his wife cheated on him and then was murdered. He shows up in Scream toward the beginning, checking on his daughter in her bedroom after he hears her scream. He lets her know he's going out of town. When he disappears, he becomes a suspect. In the last act, he turns up, bound and gagged as Billy and Stu's (Matthew Lillard) hostage. They plan to pin their murder spree on him, but Sidney fights back, putting a cork in their plans and saving her father's life. Though unseen in Scream 2, he shows back up in the final film of the original trilogy in a short scene where he goes to check up on Sidney, who is in hiding. He comforts her and asks her to come home, but she won't. In a deleted scene for Scream 4, it's mentioned that Neil has passed away, but as this wasn't part of the final product, Neil is assumed by most to still be alive.
Duane Martin as Joel
The smartest character by far in any Scream film is Joel, Gale's (Courteney Cox) new cameraman in Scream 2. He has an absolutely awful task, not only to be harassed by Gale, but to be the new guy because the last one got himself killed by Ghostface. Unfortunately for Joel, he didn't know what happened to the last guy before he took the job. As he finds out, his worries grow. After Randy (Jamie Kennedy) is murdered by the new Ghostface, Joel decides he's had enough and simply quits and walks away. When we're watching a horror movie and yelling for a horror character to just leave the place where the villain is, Joel listens. Ghostface won't get him. While he could pop up in another Scream movie, don't count on it. He's too smart to ever get anywhere close to anyone who's from Woodsboro, though there are those who believe he is the father to Martha Meeks' twins.
Joshua Jackson as Film School Guy # 1
In 1997, Joshua Jackson was on the cusp of becoming a late '90s heartthrob, which would happen a year later with his role in the Kevin Williamson created TV series Dawson's Creek. Before this though, his most notable roles were in The Mighty Ducks movies, so it's no surprise that, in his short role for Scream 2, he's not even given a name. In a college scene where Randy and his film school classmates, including Mickey (Timothy Olyphant) are debating movies, Jackson is there as one of his classmates. It was a fun thing to notice on rewatches after Jackson's career took off. Though he was never technically in a sequel, a clip of Jackson in Dawson's Creek was playing during a scene in 2022's fifth Scream film. Seeing as how several film buffs have become the killer over the years, including his college classmate Mickey, it wouldn't be a total surprise to see Film School Guy # 1 take off the Ghostface mask one day in an attempt to recreate his past friend's crimes and just maybe earn himself an actual name.
Rebecca Gayheart & Portia de Rossi as Lois and Murphy
Just as with Joshua Jackson, Rebecca Gayheart and Portia de Rossi were on the cusp of becoming famous when they appeared in Scream 2. This film's plot finds Sidney leaving Woodsboro, California behind for Windsor College in Ohio. There she finds something much more frightening than Ghostface: sorority sisters. Gayheart and de Rossi play two sorority sisters linked at the hip. They try to recruit Sidney into their sorority on a few occasions, but she's not interested. We see them again later, just missing a Ghostface attack at the sorority house, and then later when Sidney has a panic attack at a play rehearsal, and then at Derek's (Jerry O'Connell) cringeworthy singing scene in the cafeteria. They appear one last time in a prank where Derek is tied up, then never again. While it seemed like they would be easy victims for Ghostface, they somehow made it through. Gayheart would play the killer a few years later in the Scream inspired Urban Legend, so perhaps she'll use that experience to start slicing and dicing again one day.
Patrick Dempsey as Mark Kincaid
You'd be forgiven for thinking that Patrick Dempsey was a goner the moment you saw him playing a detective in Scream 3. He was either going to be just another victim or the new Ghostface. Surprisingly, he becomes neither. Kincaid is a good detective who takes his job seriously, but he also flirts with Sidney, which is probably frowned upon when on the clock. In the finale, he conveniently arrives just after Ghostface attacks, leaving you waiting for his Ghostface reveal. Instead, Ghostface attacks him, stabbing him and leaving him for dead. He keeps fighting, taking his gun to search the building, while also giving one to Gale and Dewey (David Arquette). Ghostface attacks again, but Kincaid survives. Better yet, in 2022's Scream, though he's unseen, we learn that he and Sidney are married and have a family. If Neve Campbell ever returns to the Scream franchise, it's possible we could see her husband with her.
Heather Matarazzo as Martha Meeks
Until the death of Dewey, the most heartbreaking moment of the Scream films was the death of Randy in Scream 2. The only consolation was that it gave us a chance to later meet his sister, Martha (Heather Matarazzo). With murders happening on the Stab 3 set, Martha sneaks onto the studio grounds to deliver a tape to our heroes that her brother made. She sits with them and watches it as Randy instructs everyone on the rules of a trilogy. She would appear again in 2022, now as a mother to twin teenagers Chad (Mason Gooding) and Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown). She's a little aloof, hosting an event with her kids and Dewey among others, as they try to figure out who's behind the new Ghostface attacks. She comes off as good mom, so she's certainly not happy to know that her kids are in trouble again, even though they've left Woodsboro behind for New York City. Perhaps she'll appear again to check up on her unlucky twins.