Warning: Contains spoilers for Scream.
After rumors of a potential Scream, many viewers were no doubt disappointed that the actor does not reprise his role in the latest entry in the slasher franchise. While the fifth Scream film is full of wonderful fan service and a plethora of twists and turns, Lillard's return as one of the two original killers in Wes Craven's 1996 film was not among these surprises. Despite his apparent death, the character is supposedly alive in canon, so there may be some wondering why he was not included in the fifth Scream, especially considering the film's events strongly connect to Lillard's character.
Wes Craven's 1996 Scream film concluded with the deaths of Actor Matthew Lillard has also shared the sentiment that Stu is in fact alive by the events of 2022's Scream, which makes his exclusion from the film a puzzling decision.
A simple explanation for Stu's absence in 2022's Scream is that the film was just too stuffed as it was to include him. Running at 114 minutes, Scream is filled wall-to-wall with intense sequences and important character interactions that would have made it difficult to include a cameo from Lillard. Despite the climax of the film taking place in Stu's old house from the original Scream film, having the character return would have perhaps been too much, as there are already so many plot points and characters to juggle throughout the film, especially in the climax.
On top of it being difficult to cram Stu into the events of 2022's Scream, his return could have potentially undercut the film's most emotional event: the death of David Arquette's Dewey Riley. Stu's return would have to come with a lot of exposition and would have to take up a decent proportion of the film, meaning that the characters would potentially not be able to grieve the loss of Dewey as now there's an extra layer of plot development for both the characters and the audience to digest. Without the proper time given to it, Dewey's death could've been severely emotionally undercut, and the character's legacy would've been done a disservice.
It may come as a disappointment to some for Scream to not include a cameo from Stu Macher, but it seems as though there might have been a good reason for it. The film is already juggling so many characters, between its new cast and legacy characters such as Neve Campbell's Sidney Prescott, that Lillard's Stu marking his return here would have felt like an unnecessary plot element that hurts the film rather than helps it. So while Lillard may still return to the franchise someday, it is appropriate that 2022's Scream was not the film to feature his reprisal of the character.
