Why The Scream TV Show Didn’t Use The Classic Ghostface Mask Until Season 3 (2025)

The Scream franchise not only covers movies, as it expanded to TV in 2015, but one of its biggest differences with the movies was that it used a completely different Ghostface mask. In 1996, Kevin Williamson and Wes Craven brought the horror movie Scream, which revitalized the slasher genre. Scream was a huge success and it launched a film series, with the first four movies directed by Craven, and the final three being a reboot trilogy. Between Scream 4 and Scream 2022, the saga branched out to TV with a TV show simply titled Scream, which premiered on MTV.

The Scream TV series isn’t part of the continuity of the movies, instead being a standalone series. The first two seasons of Scream took viewers to the fictional town of Lakewood, Colorado, to follow Emma DuVal (Willa Fitzgerald), a teenage girl linked to disturbing past events in town. The third season, Scream: Resurrection, broke continuity and turned the series into an anthology, and followed Deion Elliot (RJ Cyler), a football star tormented by his past. A huge difference between the show and the movies was that the former didn’t use the classic Ghostface mask until its third season.

The Scream Show’s New Mask Was A Creative Decision

It Sets The Show Apart

Why The Scream TV Show Didn’t Use The Classic Ghostface Mask Until Season 3 (1)

In 2011, Sidney Prescott’s (Neve Campbell) story with the Ghostface murders seemed to have ended with Scream 4, but that wasn’t the end of the franchise. In 2012, a Scream TV show was announced to be in development and finally premiered in 2015. However, in addition to being unrelated to the movies, the Scream TV show had its own Ghostface mask. This mask looked less like a ghost and more like a person but kept the black eyes and open mouth though more in an “o” shape.

The team behind the TV show needed to stand out and didn’t want to mislead the audience with the original mask.

Executive producer Jaime Paglia told EW in 2015 that they opted for a new “Ghostface” mask for the show to let the audience know this isn’t the same Scream as the movies. As the Ghostface mask became synonymous with the movie series, the team behind the TV show needed to stand out and didn’t want to mislead the audience with the original mask. In that same interview, Wes Craven said the new mask was “cool and scary” while taking the series in a new direction.

Months earlier, speaking to THR, MTV said the new design was a creative decision to take the TV show in a darker and more modern direction. The new mask in the Scream TV show surely fulfilled its purpose of setting the show apart from the movies, but many viewers, mostly fans of the movies, weren’t on board with the modernized design. The design itself isn’t bad – the problem was that it was attached to the name of a franchise with one of the most recognizable masks in film history.

Rights Issues Must’ve Also Prevented Scream From Using The Ghostface Mask

The Scream TV Show Might Not Have Been Able To Use The Original Ghostface Mask

Why The Scream TV Show Didn’t Use The Classic Ghostface Mask Until Season 3 (2)

Before MTV explained that the new mask was for creative reasons and to make the Scream TV show stand out from the movies, it was speculated that it wasn’t using the Ghostface mask due to budget problems. The creators and thus official licensor of the Ghostface mask from the Scream movies is Fun World, so it’s likely that MTV didn’t get their permission to use the Ghostface mask for the TV show, forcing them to design their own (and come up with an official reason not related to rights issues).

Why Scream’s TV Show Brought Back The Classic Ghostface Mask In Season 3

But Still Doesn’t Make The Show Part Of The Movies

As part of the completely different plan for the third season of Scream, the Ghostface mask finally made an appearance. As mentioned above, Scream: Resurrection was a reboot of the TV show, with a new cast, a new story, and a new mask. In 2017, the Ghostface mask was confirmed to be part of Scream: Resurrection, and with it also returned Roger L. Jackson, the voice of Ghostface in all Scream movies so far. The reason why Scream season 3 used the original Ghostface mask is a deal with Fun World.

Still, Scream: Resurrection is unrelated to the movie series, its only link being the original Ghostface mask. Unfortunately, despite its potential with a new cast and story and the Ghostface mask, Scream: Resurrection is the lowest-rated Scream season on Rotten Tomatoes with only 40%. Scream: Resurrection proved that the show’s weakness had nothing to do with the killer’s mask, and it was more of a narrative issue and it not being able to shake off the legacy of Scream, while also not being able to live up to the movies’ quality.

Scream TV Season

Rotten Tomatoes Score

Season 1

53%

Season 2

92%

Season 3

40%

Sources: EW, THR.

Why The Scream TV Show Didn’t Use The Classic Ghostface Mask Until Season 3 (3)

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Scream: The TV Series

In the town of Lakewood, a masked killer's spree exposes dark secrets among a group of teenagers, particularly Emma Duval, who is linked to the town's past tragedies. As the body count rises, Emma and her friends must unmask the murderer before becoming the next victims.

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Release Date
June 30, 2015

Network
MTV, VH1
Cast
Willa Fitzgerald, RJ Cyler, Bex Taylor-Klaus, Jessica Sula, Carlson Young, Keke Palmer, John Karna, Giorgia Whigham, Connor Weil, Tyga, Amadeus Serafini, Tracy Middendorf, Jason Wiles, Santiago Segura, Kiana Ledé, Bella Thorne, Bobby Campo, Tom Maden, Brianne Tju, Max Lloyd-Jones, Sharisse Baker-Bernard, Anna Grace Barlow, Bryan Batt, Amelia Rose Blaire, Marisela Zumbado
Why The Scream TV Show Didn’t Use The Classic Ghostface Mask Until Season 3 (2025)

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