Spoiler Alert: The following contains major spoilers for Scream 7.

Scream 7 saw the triumphant return of Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott, but she wasn’t the only familiar face to reprise an iconic role from the slasher saga.

After 30 years of fan theories, Matthew Lillard made his long-awaited return as Stu Macher — along with Laurie Metcalf as Nancy Loomis, Scott Foley as Roman Bridger, and David Arquette as Dewey Riley — in the form of an AI recreation used by the latest Ghostface to taunt Sidney.

In a spoiler interview with Empire, writer-director Kevin Williamson confirms that they shot an alternate ending revealing that Stu actually is alive.

“We wanted to have our cake and eat it too,” Williamson explains. “I wish I could take credit for that. But Guy Busick had that in his script. He wrote all the AI stuff.”

He continues, “The first time I read it I was like, ‘How is this going to work? How is he going to be alive?’ Furthermore, if it is AI, will part of the audience be disappointed that he’s not real? We were playing that game. And I’d be lying if I said we didn’t shoot it both ways.”

Williamson reveals, “We shot a little coda at the end that we had in our back pocket. But oddly enough, the decision was that the audience wanted him dead.”

He confirms that test audiences preferred that Stu remain dead. “It makes more sense. It’s more real. If he’s alive, that’s a big stretch. We live in a world now where with fake AI, we know that’s possible.”

In theaters now, Scream 7 sees new Ghostface killer emerge in the quiet town where Sidney Prescott has built a new life. Determined to protect her family when her daughter becomes the next target, Sidney must face the horrors of her past to put an end to the bloodshed once and for all.

Meagan Navarro wrote in her review, “The franchise seems to be succumbing to the tired tropes it so humorously and lovingly poked fun at in the first place. Still, there are enough thrills and chills injected, at least until its abysmal finale, to signal that there’s a faintly beating pulse buried somewhere under the mess.”