New Scream Mask Revealed, Along With Totally B.S. Reasons for the Change

Entertainment Weekly/MTV

You wouldn’t do Freddy Krueger without a fedora and sweater. Leatherface without a skin-mask isn’t Leatherface. Even Jason Voorhees, who has evolved his look, doesn’t lose the hockey mask any more. So how do you do a Scream series and not use the mask that’s iconic to the franchise? Here are the fake reasons:

“The [original]mask is so iconic. If you were to have that mask in a television series, but you weren’t following any of the characters [from the original], I believe that would be misleading the audience,” says exec producer Jaime Paglia (Eureka).

But the mask does play with the franchise’s love of horror classics. Explains exec producer Jill Blotevogel (Harper’s Island): “It evokes some of the Jason hockey mask and the white Michael Myers mask, but it’s still first and foremost evocative of the Scream mask. It’s sort of a reinvention while also paying homage.”

The truth? Royalties had to be paid on the original design, which was a pre-existing mask created for sale by a costume company. This new one can be copyrighted. Just fucking say it.