A heated take on Scream sparked a debate among fans, made up of mostly appreciative tweets. The original film, written by Kevin Williamson and directed by Wes Craven, premiered in December 1996 and launched a franchise that now spans six films and three seasons of a spin-off television series. The original film followed Sydney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and her friends as they are being stalked by a masked killer known as Ghostface on the anniversary of Sydney’s mother’s murder.
This week, Twitter user COREYHAIMz shared a hot take on Twitter. Along with photos of two teenage boys being threatened by Henry Winkler’s character, Principal Himbry, in a short scene from 1996’s Scream, she posted the caption, “What if I said they were the only two hot guys in Scream (1996)?” were boys.” Naturally, this hot take prompted a backlash from Scream fans on Twitter, which quickly turned into people sharing “thirsty” photos of Skeet Ulrich, Billy and Matthew Lillard, Stu, two of the franchise’s most popular characters .
The characters at the center of this debate, credited as Expelled Teen #1 and Expelled Teen #2, are minor but ultimately play a major role in the world of Scream. He is introduced when he dons a Ghostface mask and chases Sydney through the corridors of her school, highlighting Sydney’s absurdity of the world around her to her plight. Later, he is threatened with a pair of scissors by an enraged Principal Himbry, a scene that exposes him as a possible suspect before his sudden death later in the film.
The actors who played these two characters are Troy Bishop and Ryan Kennedy (no relation to Jamie Kennedy, who played Randy Meeks in Scream). Both have played minor roles in various projects throughout their careers, although have no credits after 2012. Kennedy’s biggest role was arguably in a 1999 episode of Nash Bridges, while Bishop has appeared in various major titles, including Scrubs, General Hospital, Don’t. Trust the B– in Apartment 23, and – oddly – in another episode of Nash Bridge.
Although these characters only appear in Scream for a very short time, the fact that they were able to spark heated debate shows how important every detail of the original film is in the long run. In fact, a fan theory even speculates that one of them could be the father of Tara Carpenter (played by Jenna Ortega) in Scream 2022 and Scream VI. While it seems unlikely that the two will return in a future Scream film, they are still an indelible part of an iconic franchise.