10 Actors Who Returned To Horror Franchises YEARS Later

Try and find a horror fan who doesn't love a franchise. Much as we all adore original horror movies, there's something to be said for getting lost in a decades-spanning saga of films with rich lore and recurring characters.

The ongoing nature of most horror franchises means that, after a point, a prominent actor might take a leave of absence for one of many reasons, only to circle back to the series many years, even many decades, later.

Perhaps an actor is lured back by a promising script, a desire to return to their roots, or simply a nice, fat paycheck - whatever the reason, the following actors all came back to the horror franchises that helped make them famous a long, long time later.

While there's never any guarantee that bringing a legacy actor back is going to work out well - as this list will certainly be a testament to - it is nevertheless inherently neat to see an original star coming back to their old genre stomping ground after so much time. And that, of course, is why studios will keep banking on nostalgia-fuelled casting until the heat death of the universe.

The Scream franchise's ever-excitable fanbase collectively lost their you-know-what when it was recently announced that series alums Matthew Lillard and Scott Foley would both be returning to the slasher IP in the upcoming Scream 7.

Lillard, whose villain Stu Macher died at the end of the original Scream, is back 30 years after his last appearance, while Foley, who played Scream 3's solo killer Roman Bridger, will return 26 years after he perished on-screen.

While there's been long-time speculation about the possibility of Stu having miraculously survived having a TV dropped on his head, it's far more likely that Lillard and Foley will either appear as visions - like those of Skeet Ulrich's Billy Loomis in the last two movies - or as part of a flashback sequence.

It's even been speculated that Scream 7's opening kill could be Sidney Prescott's (Neve Campbell) own mother Maureen, who we know was murdered by Stu and Billy at the behest of Roman.

Either way, this wild announcement sure is one hell of a way to reignite flagging fan interest in Scream 7 following the unceremonious departures of Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega.