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In Kevin Williamson's first draft, the self-referential, meta-commentary on sequels remained sharp. The plot centered on the same premise: Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) was now a college student trying to escape her past at the fictional Windsor College. The terror begins at a premiere of Stab , the movie-within-a-movie about the Woodsboro murders, where new victims are savagely killed. However, that's where the similarities ended, as the original conclusion was far more unstable than the one that made it to the screen.
The changes made to the script were reportedly due to a combination of factors, including:
: Mrs. Loomis remained the mastermind, but she was joined by Cotton Weary in a final-act betrayal.
This forced rewrite explains why the theatrical version sometimes feels like two different movies stitched together. The original script flows with a singular vision, whereas the movie has to pivot awkwardly to accommodate the new killers.
Structurally, the original script mirrors the released film closely. Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) is at Windsor College, a copycat killer dons the Ghostface cloak, and the bodies pile up. The opening scene featuring the premiere of the movie-within-a-movie, Stab , is largely intact, though the dialogue is sharper and the meta-commentary even more aggressive.
Allowing Cotton Weary to become a genuine hero set up his character perfectly for the opening sequence of Scream 3 .
Mickey was also a killer in this draft, but his role was primarily to act as a pawn who is killed off before the final unmasking. Aligned Motives and the Final Showdown
In the leaked draft, the Ghostface mask is pulled off to reveal… (Jada Pinkett’s character) and Derek (Sidney’s college boyfriend), working as a vengeful pair.
For years after the film's release, Wes Craven and the producers claimed that the leaked script was a "dummy script." They argued it was intentionally written with fake endings to throw off internet spoilers.