Trivia / Scream 2

• Acting in the Dark: None of the cast knew the identity of the killer until the last day of shooting, and none of them got the last ten pages of the script until it was time to film them. However, Laurie Metcalf noticed that a lot of her script was "blacked out", and quickly guessed that Debbie Salt would turn out to be one of the killers.
• Actor-Inspired Element: Duane Martin suggested that Joel would go Screw This, I'm Outta Here after Randy gets killed. Specifically that he would leave in a taxi.
• Awesome, Dear Boy: Sarah Michelle Gellar agreed to star in the film for this reason, despite being busy filming Season 2 of Buffy and I Know What You Did Last Summer at the same time. She even signed on before reading the script.
• Cast the Runner-Up: Rebecca Gayheart had auditioned for the role of Tatum Riley in the first film, and auditioned multiple times for Cici Cooper, Hallie, and Maureen Evans before obtaining her eventual role as the sorority sister Lois.
• Content Leak: A draft of the film's script leaked onto the Internet, forcing the production crew to change the story in various ways.
• Contest Winner Cameo: The usher who gives masks to Maureen and Phil at the beginning won a contest sponsored by MTV to appear in the movie.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Most of the cast hated the scene where Derek randomly starts singing "I Think I Love You" to Sidney, Jerry O'Connell admitting "I did the best I could".
  • Kevin Williamson admitted that it was a mistake to kill off Randy so early in the series, and would have kept him around had he known the franchise would have the longevity it did.
• Enforced Method Acting: As in the first film, Roger L. Jackson was kept separate from the rest of the cast so they could not put a face to the voice although he was on set to deliver his lines. As a result, they were all very intimidated by him. The exception was Sarah Michelle Gellar, who he says would chat amiably with him on the phone in between takes. She is Buffy, after all.
• Executive Meddling: Wes Craven expected this, and he deliberately made some scenes more violent and gory, anticipating that the censors would want them toned down—the toned down versions being the ones he really wanted. Instead, the censors agreed to give the film an R rating with the original scenes they were shown, feeling the film's message warranted the violence. In fact, the film's editor recalls being praised by the censors for how the opening scene made a statement on sensationalised violence.
• Flip-Flop of God: As early as 2017, screenwriter Kevin Williamson has made statements that the leaked script with Hallie and Derek as the killers was a dummy draft. However, in the DVD Commentary for Scream 2, director Wes Craven, producer Marianne Maddalena, and editor Patrick Lussier discussed that they initially planned for Derek and Hallie to be the new Ghostfaces but had to rewrite the story after the Content Leak on the Internet. Elise Neal also confirmed that her character Hallie was supposed to be Ghostface.
• Harpo Does Something Funny: Several parts of Kevin Williamson's script literally just had "Wes Craven will make it scary" for certain sequences.
• Hostility on the Set: It has long been rumored that Wes Craven did not get along with Sarah Michelle Gellar, feeling that she had a tendency to Wag the Director. Allegedly, the character of Sarah Darling in Scream 3 was a Take That! at Gellar.
• Permanent Placeholder: "Dewey's Theme" was used as a placeholder for Marco Beltrami's incomplete score during a test screening. The test audience reaction to it influenced the studio to keep the piece, reducing "Dewey's Theme", which Beltrami had composed to fill its place, to minor use during more serious scenes involving Dewey.
• Real-Life Relative: Lewis Arquette (Chief Hartley) was the real-life father of David Arquette and father-in-law of Courteney Cox.
• Reality Subtext: Randy alludes to nude photos of Gale appearing on the internet, something that had happened to Courteney Cox just before production began.
• Recycled Set: The bathroom scene in Stab is set in the same bathroom used in the first film.
• Romance on the Set: Sarah Michelle Gellar and Jerry O'Connell dated during shooting.
• Spared by the Cut: A discarded script draft has a Downer Ending where, instead of helping save Sidney and Gale, Cotton tries to kill them out of bitterness over his original imprisonment. He and Sidney mortally wound each other. Both survive in the filmed scene.
• Throw It In!:
  • Randy the film nerd rather obviously gets a quote from Aliens wrong (insisting the line is "stay away from her, you bitch"). Joshua Jackson was supposed to get the quote wrong, but he mixed up the quotes, and Jamie Kennedy in turn ad-libbed saying the quote the former was meant to say (in the original version of this scene, where Mickey says this, he gets the quote wrong and Randy corrects him).
  • Elise Neal ad-libbed "did you get that on film" after Sidney punches Gale, and Duane Martin likewise ad-libbed Joel mimicking her.
  • As the party clears out after Cici is found dead, one girl can be seen walking a dog down the stairs. The dog belonged to Liev Schreiber, who begged Wes Craven to put him in the film.
  • The sequence of Hallie and Sidney having to crawl through the front of the cop car to escape was thought up right there on set. Luckily, Neve Campbell credited her dancing experience for allowing her to do the tricky back bending stunt with little preparation.
• Troubled Production: The film ran into issues after one of the extras leaked its script to the internet (one of the first major film leaks in the digital age). As a result, the film's script was almost entirely rewritten, with pages often being completed the day they were to be filmed. Security was tightened, with everyone required to sign non-disclosure agreements, and the film underwent many reshoots.
• Voice-Only Cameo: Selma Blair is the drunk sister talking to Cici on the phone at the sorority house before Ghostface calls her.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Alicia Silverstone and Reese Witherspoon were considered for the role of Cici Cooper before the casting of Sarah Michelle Gellar. Witherspoon was previously approached for the part of Sidney Prescott in Scream.
  • Sarah Michelle Gellar's role was completely different. She was originally meant to appear in the scene with the sorority sisters inviting Sidney to the party. The scene which she does appear in—the film class discussion—had a different student giving her lines.
  • The film originally ended with a shot with another Ghostface◊ watching over from the campus' bell tower. There is fan speculation that it is Roman Bridger under the mask.
  • Originally, Randy was Gale's new cameraman rather than Joel, who was instead a med student and one of Sidney's friends. Moreover, Derek and Hallie were film students just like Mickey, and Debbie Salt took Gale's role as the rude news reporter who asks Sidney if she was the one murdering everyone whereas Gale demonstrated more obvious Character Development by punching Salt in the face.
  • Joel was originally meant to be killed off. Duane Martin convinced Wes Craven it would be funnier and more realistic for him to get the hell out of dodge once bodies started piling up.
  • In the first script, Mickey was the one who did the singing in the cafeteria and sung to Hallie, rather than Sidney. In addition, the song would have been Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" instead of Less Than Jake's cover of "I Think I Love You". He is also an innocent victim in this version and later saves Sidney by distracting the two Ghostfaces attacking her.
  • The original leaked script had Hallie and Derek as Mrs. Loomis's accomplices. Remnants of this still exist in the final film as fauxshadowing, such as why Mickey and Hallie were both left-handed like the killer. Due to the leaks, reshoots were done. and the killers' identities were changed.
    • In general, Derek was the muscle of the trio and thus has most of the kills that Mickey commits in the final movie: Phil, Maureen, Cici, Officer Richards, and Officer Andrews. Mrs. Loomis still murders Randy in this version and later assists Derek in killing Mickey. Hallie is instead the one who kills Dewey and also kills Joel offscreen.
    • However, the fifth film revived the idea that the leads' seemingly supportive boyfriend and best friend were the killers all along.
  • The ending would have been much darker. For one, Ghostface manages to off Dewey this time. In addition, after betraying Derek and Hallie, Mrs. Loomis reveals that Cotton Weary is her Fall Guy, arguing that the falsely-imprisoned Cotton would want revenge on Sidney and Gale for ruining his life. Before Mrs. Loomis can enact her plan, Cotton cuts himself loose and kills her; however, Cotton proceeds to kill Gale as well. In his Motive Rant to Sidney, Cotton verifies that he does indeed want revenge and feels confident that he can get away with murdering Gale and Sidney since Derek's videotape would exonerate him. The script would then end with Sidney and Cotton stabbing each other to the death. Presumably, this would have ended the franchise with this movie.
• Working Title: Various titles were considered for the sequel at different points in the film's production, including Scream Again, Scream Louder, and Scream: The Sequel.
• You Look Familiar: Matthew Lillard (Stu Macher in the first movie) has an uncredited cameo here.

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