Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere) is one of the best parts of Scream 4, and while fans of the franchise were glad to see Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), Dewey Riley (David Arquette), and Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) in Scream (2022), audiences would have been thrilled to see Kirby, too. Thankfully, Kirby gets a mention in the fifth movie. Richie Kirsch (Jack Quaid) is on his laptop and there's a YouTube interview from Bloody Disgusting with Kirby as a Woodsboro survivor.
While fans of the franchise are of course thrilled to get to see another Ghostface come to Woodsboro, it's especially exciting to know that Kirby willl be in Scream 6. Here's why this is a smart idea.
Kirby Reed coming back to Scream 6 is an amazing idea because Kirby is such a popular Scream 4 character. Scream (2022) already made fans happy by bringing back Sidney, Gale, and Dewey, and Scream 6 is doing the right thing by bringing back another legacy character. Now, fans have a reason to get even more excited for the new film, as they want to see who Kirby is now and what she's up to.
While fans of course don't know what kind of part Kirby will play in Scream 6, it's fun to imagine what her role could be. Perhaps Kirby will come back home to Woodsboro and help Gale and Sidney fight Ghostface. This would help cement Kirby as a new final girl, which fans have been waiting for as many felt that Kirby could have taken over after Scream 4 and appeared in several new movies. While Sidney is an ultimate final girl and even Gale can be a final girl, there's always room for one more, and Kirby has shown that she is tough even to take this horror trope on.
Kirby is the exact right kind of character to connect all six movies together. One possible complaint about Scream (2022) is that it kind of ignores the events of Scream 4. While Deputy Judy Hicks (Marley Shelton) is back, this time with her son Wes (Dylan Minnette), she's the only link between the two films. Otherwise, fans could watch Scream (2022) and feel that the fourth movie hadn't even happened. Kirby's return makes it feel like Scream 4 is still a significant part of the horror franchise when sometimes, the movie is ignored in favor of the first two.
It's possible to say that the Scream movies aren't scary... but with Kirby in Scream 6, the new film will at least feel a bit creepy and unsettling. Why? Because Kirby grew up in Woodsboro hearing about Sidney's story, feeling sure that a killer would never strike again in the small California town. Then Kirby realized that her very own best friend Jill Roberts (Emma Roberts) was behind a new crop of murders, along with Charlie Walker (Rory Culkin) who claimed to be in love with her. Now, if Kirby comes back home when she learns that there's another Ghostface, she'll go through the same emotional journey that Sidney has been on: realizing that Woodsboro is rarely safe and that danger is always around.
Kirby's inclusion also does something important: making fans feel like they've been heard. While Billy Loomis's ghost is a frustrating part of Scream (2022), as seeing Skeet Ulrich de-aged is just incredibly cheesy, fans are thrilled about seeing Kirby again. With such a long-running slasher franchise, it's a great idea to make fans happy because these are the people who have been enjoying these movies for so many years.
Ultimately, Kirby means so much to Scream fans because she cracks jokes, she can tell what's going on without anyone needing to explain things to her, and she seems clever. Such wise characters don't always appear in horror movies, especially the further that fans get into a slasher franchise, as these characters tend to be cliched, one-note, or otherwise superficial.
Kirby is also relatable because she gets scared as Scream 4 goes on, like when Deputy Judy Hicks asks her if Ghostface phoned her and Kirby says, "Is that a bad thing/ Does that mean I'm not gonna live as long as these two?" Judy tells her to watch out for herself and Kirby yells, "Oh my god, did you hear that? I'm gonna be next!" This scene works perfectly as fans see that Kirby is smart enough to know when to be terrified and when to be chill, and she fully understands that she could die at any time. No matter what happens in Scream 6, fans can at least rest assured that they will get to catch up with Kirby Reed, and seeing this character again will be totally satisfying.