Jenna Ortega Wanted Scream 6 To Give Her Character A Real Personality

Jenna Ortega ("Wednesday") would have been forgiven had she not returned to the "Scream" franchise. As one of the many new faces of the franchise created by horror master Wes Craven, Ortega's character Tara Carpenter was put through the wringer in 2022's sequel.

In "Scream" (that's "Scream 5," not to be mixed up with the exact same title of Craven's 1996 original), Ortega is the first person attacked by the masked killer known as Ghostface. The attack occurs two and a half decades after the original killers' spree in the fictional town of Woodsboro, but it's no less vicious. During the course of the movie, Tara is stabbed, her bones shattered, attacked again in the hospital, and by film's end, several of her friends are dead. But Tara perseveres, and Ortega reprises the role in the upcoming "Scream 6," which moves the party from California to New York — to the chorus of scores of online "Jason Takes Manhattan" comparisons.

Speaking on Deadline's 20 Questions podcast, Ortega looks back on her role in the sequel as a fairly limited one, spending much of her screen time in a wheelchair and getting few of the group dynamics enjoyed by co-stars like Melissa Barrera, Mason Gooding, and Jasmin Savoy Brown, all three of which will return for the new installment, along with legacy characters like Courteney Cox's beloved Gale Weathers. Thankfully, "Scream 6" gave Ortega the chance to expand on Tara, as she told Deadline:

"In the fifth installment, I only ever shot with Ghostface, and I was only ever screaming and crying on the floor. So on this second one, I had to interact with my other cast mates and give her some sort of a personality, and that was really fun for me."

As far as details on the next installment, it looks like lips are sealed until the March release date. What we know so far is that "Ready or Not" filmmakers Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett are returning to the co-director's chairs, armed with another fresh screenplay written by Guy Busick and James Vanderbilt. The aforementioned surviving characters of last year's entry join cheeky legacy character Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere from "Scream 4") and Gale Weathers and take flight from Woodsboro to start anew — but you can't escape the Ghostface killer.

What we further know is that the tenacious Sidney Prescott, who has been in Ghostface's sights since the very beginning, will not be returning for "Scream 6," with actress Neve Campbell citing a contract dispute. Ortega, speaking to ET Online, is mum on how the new film will handle Sidney's absence, but she can say that it brings plenty of intensity and buckets of blood such that she says, "I think you're gonna be distracted almost." Ortega continued:

"There's references to Sidney, of course. It's nice because there's still a protectiveness in the script and that's something that the actors had naturally over her, because obviously we respect her and we want the best for her. She's missed and thought of."

Previously, Ortega had promised ET that the body count will stay high, and that Ghostface will become even more of an "intimidating" presence. "I just read part of the script, and it just gets more and more gory," she told the outlet, "I think that this is probably the most aggressive and violent version of Ghostface we've ever seen."

"Scream 6" is set to arrive in theaters on March 10, 2023.