Scream VI directors discuss which character names are real and which are fake
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Scream VI.]
In ScreamBilly Loomis (Skeet Ulrich) and Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard) were two Woodsboro High School students who thought they had hatched a successful plan to kill their classmates, Sidney’s (Never Campbell) father for the crimes and convince local law enforcement that they were the only survivors. They had no reason to hide their identities.
Mrs. Loomis (Laurie Metcalf) had her reporter alias Debbie Salt, but ultimately confirmed that she was in fact Billy Loomis’ mother. Mickey’s (Timothy Olyphant) motive demanded that he keep his real name so he could reap the rewards of his dreaming process. scream 3‘s novel (Scott Foley) had no reason to change his name as Sidney didn’t even know she had a half brother and with Jill’s (Emma Roberts) glory-seeking tale in scream 4it made sense for her and Charlie (Rory Culkin) to preserve their true identity. That brings us to Scream 2022.
Similar to Billy and Stu, Richie (Jack Quaid) and amber (Mikey Madison) planned to append Sam (Melissa Barrera) for the murders and convince the authorities that they were the only survivors. Why bother using pseudonyms when that’s how they think of things? But then we meet Richie’s family in scream VI – his father Detective Wayne Bailey (Dermot Mulroney), his sister Quinn Bailey (Liana Liberato) and his brother Ethan Landry (Jack Champion). So who is using the wrong name here? Is the family’s real last name Kirsch, Bailey, or Landry?
I asked scream VI Manufacturer Chad Villela and directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin And Tyler Gillet just that. As soon as the question arose, Bettinelli-Olpin joked, “What? I’m sorry, I think we have to go.” He continued, “We’ve had this debate a lot, what are the fake names or the real names? Is Bailey real or cherry? And we have an internal debate with us and [screenwriters] Guy [Busick] and Jamie [Vanderbilt].”
Gillett jumped in to tease the possibility of a third option, which we may not have heard; “I think we’ve decided, and correct me if I’m wrong, that Kirsch is an alias and Bailey is also an alias. That the right name is whoever they were in the Midwest.” However, he also pointed out, “But then there’s a problem with that prosecution when he goes to the NYPD.”
Since they haven’t settled on a definitive answer yet, let’s consider the possibilities. Yes, it could be extremely difficult (too difficult) for Richie’s father to go from small-town cop to big-city detective under an assumed name. But would it have made sense that Richie would have referred to himself as “Richie Kirsch” in his homemade fan films if that wasn’t his real name as a kid?
Another element to consider is that there is no mention of Richie, Ethan, and Quinn’s mother. Perhaps their parents split at some point, Richie took his mother’s maiden name and Quinn kept her father’s last name. But then what about Ethan’s last name? Could he actually have tricked Blackmore College admissions and enrolled with a fake surname? Given that Wayne Richie helped steal evidence to build a Ghostface shrine, that doesn’t seem out of the question. And could Landry be the Midwestern surname Gillett is referring to, or is there a fourth name at play?
Personal? Richie, who takes the surname Kirsch for himself in his fan films, is key, which leads me to believe Detective Bailey managed to trick the system during transmission – unless he has a different surname than Richie’s mother , in which case both Kirsch and Bailey would be real names.
Looking for more scream VI Spoiler details to consider? Be sure to watch our full 30-minute spoiler interview with Villella, Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett in the video at the top of this article and the spoiler section of ours Collider Ladies Night follow along Melissa Barrera under:
