Jamie Kennedy, the actor who played Randy Meeks in Scream, says his character is likely “deader than dead” in the franchise despite fan theories.
Jamie Kennedy, the actor who played Scream‘s horror movie aficionado Randy Meeks, says his character is likely “deader than dead.” The first Scream movie was directed by horror legend Wes Craven, who made a name for himself with A Nightmare on Elm Street. Upon its release in 1996, Scream was seen as revolutionary for the way it skewered genre tropes through an inventive and often funny script from Kevin Williamson. The film follows Neve Campbell’s Sidney and her friends as a masked murderer known as Ghostface utilizes horror movies as part of a deadly game that starts racking up a body count. The cast featured numerous up-and-coming actors, including Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Skeet Ulrich, Matthew Lillard, and Kennedy.
Kennedy’s Randy was an essential character in the first film, as he was a local video store clerk who understood the horror movie tropes the killer was following. Through Randy’s expertise in the genre, he’s able to lay out the rules the characters needed to follow to survive. Randy was lucky enough to make it to the sequel, Scream 2. However, Randy met his demise in the sequel at the hands of Ghostface inside a van, out of view of the audience. Kennedy was still able to pop up in Scream 3 via a videotape that Randy recorded prior to his death, which was his last appearance in the franchise. Now, with Scream 5, simply titled Scream, set for release early next year, theories abound that Randy could return.
While speaking with Comicbook, Kennedy was asked about Randy’s status within the world of Scream. Kennedy initially says that he would be open to returning to the character “if there was a plausible way.” However, the actor quickly followed that with “I believe I’m deader than dead” before postulating on the deeper reasons Randy’s death may still resonate with fans. Check out Kennedy’s comments below:
“If I was in the mythology, I think my mythology is strong because I’m not in it, you know what I mean? So if I came back, it could bastardize it. But if there was a plausible way that wouldn’t piss off the audience, it might be interesting to entertain, but, as of right now, I believe I’m deader than dead, and I think that’s what makes it good is the fact that you are dead and that’s why it’s strong because you died. You were one of the good ones and maybe you shouldn’t have went, but that’s what life is. It’s pain. Sometimes things happen, you can’t explain. And that’s why it resonates so much with people because of that.”
