False protagonist

In a work of fiction, a false protagonist or false main character is a literary technique to diverge from a conventional narrative structure. In the case of the Scream franchise, there are multiple examples of a false protagonist for different intended results. Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson both test the audience's perception and judgement of the narrative throughout each film in various ways, skewing their preconceived ideas of what they believe the film to be.

Examples of this are prominent in the Scream film franchise due to its whodunit murder mystery narrative. For leading roles, Drew Barrymore as Casey Becker in the original 1996 Scream (the opening victim), Emma Roberts as Jill Roberts in Scream 4 (2011) and possibly Neve Campbell's Sidney Prescott herself as well in the fifth Scream film (2022) are examples.

As less prominent example of the occurrence of non-leading protagonists who are promoted as major characters but simply turn out to be cameos or opening kill victims, Jada Pinkett as Maureen Evans (promoted heavily for Scream 2, but is the second kill of the film) and Dylan Minnette as Wes Hicks (casting, name eulogy and promotion, as well as actor popularity, but is the third kill of the film).

Background in horror
One of the most famous examples of a false protagonist is Marian Crane in Psycho (1960 film). Despite her strong prominence in the first 30 minutes of the film, she is killed by Norman Bates at the motel. The importance of this bait-and-switch to Alfred Hitchcock was so important that he convinced theatres to enforce a "no late admissions" policy. In the original Alien movie, Sigourney Weaver's Ripley was not played as the main protagonist. For the first half of the movie, the presumptive lead was Captain Dallas (Tom Skerritt) AKA Victim #3. In fact, Sigourney Weaver was probably the least famous actor in the cast. John Hurt, the most established actor, dies first in the iconic Chest Burster scene. This is similar to Dylan Minnette as Wes Hicks, the most famous actor who was also Victim #3.

Another example is the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. Kristen from A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master. After Patricia Arquette's refusal to revisit the horror genre, Arquette was replaced with Tuesday Knight. Knight's version became a small role, where Kristen was killed off, and her close friend at school, Alice became the new lead for the fourth film and its sequel. Tina (from the 1984 original) and Kris (from the 2010 remake) are arguably A Nightmare on Elm Street false protagonists as well.

The Halloween franchise also explores this idea through various timelines. Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode is the false protagonist of Halloween: Resurrection after the ending of Halloween H20 was retconned to suggest Michael swapped places with a paramedic. Fans expressed displeasure and outrage at this event, as Strode is killed in the opening scene, but the events that follow are completely unrelated.

Similarly, Jamie Lloyd is the false protagonist of the sixth Halloween film after starring as the protagonist of the fourth and fifth films as Laurie's daughter. This also earned backlash due to Jamie Lloyd's recasting and the disturbing incest story added, after audiences were previously aware of the character as a child as well. Danielle Harris expressed disappointment with this decision numerous times.

False leading protagonists
The most famous example of this is Drew Barrymore's casting as Casey Becker. Audiences were led to believe Barrymore, a huge 90s star and Hollywood royalty, was the film lead. Indeed, in the promotional cycle leading up to the original Scream film, Barrymore was heavily marketed as one of the leads. She was initially cast as the true franchise heroine Sidney Prescott, but scheduling conflicts led her to suggest becoming the opening victim instead, and this idea she pitched became legend. Another example of a false protagonist is a protagonist who turns out to be the antagonist, which is also referred to as the False Hero or False Victim trope. This is evident in the casting of Emma Roberts as Jill Roberts. Prior to her future villain-esque mean girl roles in the 2010s, Roberts had never done a horror film, and was primarily known for her child-friendly roles, such as her leading role on Nickelodeon's Unfabulous. Casting calls pitched Jill as a new heroine, the new generation's Sidney, but as it turned out, Jill was a mastermind psychopath jealous of Sidney and wanted to kill and replace her. The latest example of a false protagonist is possibly Sidney Prescott herself. The promotional cycle of the fifth film, a soft reboot simply titled Scream showcases Sidney front and centre on the poster, and she was promoted as the main draw-in for audiences to watch the film. A line, "Hello Sidney, it's an honour" was used in the trailer. But it was revealed to be a reference by Amber Freeman to Dewey Riley after she murdered him.

Despite this, it is Sam Carpenter, portrayed by Melissa Barrera — the illegitimate daughter of original Ghostface mastermind, Billy Loomis — who serves as the true successor heroine in the film, after a false lead was presented with Jill in the previous film. Despite this, Sidney still operates in a critical role in the final act of the film.

However, whether this constitutes a legitimate case of a False Protagonist is debatable. Audiences were aware a new franchise Final Girl would be cast, and it would revolve around her homecoming story, but not necessarily that Sidney would no longer serve as the protagonist, after the fourth film rejected the remake trend. Sidney declares, "Don't fuck with the original" after killing Jill Roberts in the climax of Scream 4 (as Jill attempted to become the next generation version of Sidney herself).

Another hint to Samantha's character being the new protagonist is her appearance after the opening scene attack. In all previous four films directed by Wes Craven, it was Sidney that was the first character to appear. Even in the fourth film when it appeared to be setting up Jill for her own franchise. Despite this, fans have speculated that Samantha's role as a main character is a villain origin story, and she will eventually succumb to the psychopathy of her father and grandmother, possibly in Scream 6.

This has led fans to propose a theory that the deuteragonist, Tara may be the new lead. Technically, Tara is the first character to appear in the relaunch of the franchise. She does not die in the opening attack, a twist that diverges from the previous four films. This may cancel out the general rule established that Sam's appearance after the opening scene constitutes her as the true successor of Sidney. Whereas Tara, who was attacked, is introduced in a similar way to Sidney, with a troublesome mother, and a group of friends who are suspects.

Non-leading false main characters
Jada Pinkett as Maureen Evans was promoted heavily for Scream 2 and unlike Randy Meeks, a major character in the franchise, has appeared prominently in one of the posters for the film franchise. Despite this, her character is also killed in the opening. Another example is the casting of Dylan Minnette as Wes Hicks. Given his name as an homage to late horror director and franchise veteran director Wes Craven, his connection to a legacy character (a previously unmentioned son) in Judy Hicks, Minnette's own popularity due to the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why, it was strongly believed by fans that his role would be much stronger in the film itself. The character's own precautious mindset and behavior is another red herring. Despite this, he and his mother are double-killed as the second and third victims of the film.

The false cameo/minor role
Another storytelling technique juxtaposed to this is the false cameo or false minor role. It refers to the idea that an actor or actress will simply cameo and be unimportant to the series or events in the film. The most prominent example of this is Jenna Ortega as Tara Carpenter, who was heavily promoted as the opening kill victim in trailers for the fifth film after it became an established formula. In a twist, Tara remains alive, and even survives the film, despite her severe wounds.

Another false cameo/minor role is Nancy Loomis, who posed as the alias Debbie Salt, a reporter. Despite Metcalf's popularity on Roseanne, her character in Scream 2 is relegated to an insignificant side role. The twist revealed "Debbie" was Billy Loomis' mother all along, and by the end had a significant role, with her being revealed as one of the killers.

Trivia

 * Sometimes referred to as a Decoy Protagonist.
 * Barrymore spoke in a 2020 interview about advocating herself to play the role of Casey, Kevin Williamson's first written target of the franchise, "In the horror film genre, my biggest pet peeve was that I always knew the main character was going to be slugging through at the end, but was going to creak by and make it. What I wanted to do is to take that comfort zone away," she said. "I asked if I could be Casey Becker so we would establish this rule does not apply in this film."