‘Scream’: Who Is Sidney Prescott’s Husband? Her Relationship History, Explained

No one would hold it against Sidney Prescott if she swore off love. After all, she has a killer track record with it.

Through no fault of her own, the final girl at the heart of the Scream film franchise, played since the 1996 original by Neve Campbell, has had rotten luck with men. Can you blame someone whose first boyfriend murdered her mother and littered her life with one serial killing after another for being cautious with her heart?

Ahead of Scream 7, let’s look back at the past and current men in Sidney’s life, including Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich), Derek Feldman (Jerry O’Connell), Mark Kincaid (Patrick Dempsey), and now Mark Evans. We will refrain from calling the latter characters “Mark 1” and “Mark 2.”

Who is Sidney Prescott’s husband?

In Scream 7, out February 27, Sidney seems to have finally found a happy ending. She’s married to her husband, Mark Evans (Joel McHale), raising a daughter, Tatum (Isabel May), and seemingly running a quaint coffee shop in Indiana.

If we have learned anything from screenwriter-turned-director Kevin Williamson’s slasher series, it’s that there is always another Ghostface, and they love to slice and dice a happy ending. As audience members, though, we have also come to distrust the men in Sidney’s life — and really anyone who isn’t named Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox). So, should we be suspicious of the incredibly tall man sharing a bed and a life with our final girl? Only time will tell, but history could have some insight.

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Who was Billy Loomis?

Where it all started. In many ways, Billy Loomis trained an entire generation to look past the dreamy qualities in a man and recognize his red flags. Sexual but not too aggressive, devilishly handsome but still mysterious, protective but not overbearing. Climbing through the window at night to get his PG-13 romance. He seemed to have it all, and that’s because it was all an act. He had murdered her mother, murdered her friends, and was dead set on making her his last victim. But he had a fatal flaw. He believed he was the smartest person in the room, and unfortunately for him, he had also invited Sidney and Gale to the party.

Scream (2022) and Scream 6 have a weird relationship with Billy, after revealing that new franchise final girl Sam (Melissa Barrera) was his daughter and may carry the family gene for murder and mayhem. Instead of fear, his ghostly presence is treated with a nostalgic affection in those movies that will likely be missing from Scream 7 as it pivots away from Sam’s story. But there is no denying the fact that the “love” story behind Sidney and Billy was the gateway into this entire franchise. It subverted the idea that love will save you. Sidney has always proven she has to save herself. Thankfully, Sidney never fell for Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard), even though he famously “had a thing for ya, Sid!”

Everett Collection

Who was Derek Feldman?

Poor, sweet Derek. As Hallie (Elise Neal) warned him, it was bad luck to give away his Greek letters to his girl, and those letters ultimately spelled his doom. But we are getting ahead of ourselves. In Scream 2, Sidney has gone to college, and she’s being plagued by something worse than the Freshman 15. A killer(s) is on the loose, and because of what she just
went through with Billy, she is inevitably skeptical about the intentions of her chiseled Omega Kappa Beta boyfriend Derek. Could she have fallen for two psycho killers back to back? Admittedly, getting into another relationship so soon does warrant some hesitation. But after he stood up in the cafeteria and sang “I Think I Love You” to our final girl, we wanted to protect Derek at all costs.

But Sidney was more conflicted. When the final act rolls around, and Derek is left tied to a theater prop by his frat brothers (penance for giving away his letters), it is the perfect chance for Mickey (Timothy Olyphant) to wedge some uncertainty between Derek and Sidney. So much so that she hesitates in saving him, and Mickey puts a bullet in his heart. Derek’s death is not Sidney’s fault by any means because Mickey pulled the trigger. Yet she clearly lives with that loss, at least for the immediate future. In Scream 3, she is still wearing Derek’s letters, a nod to her goofy prince.

Who was Mark Kincaid?

Who could have foreseen that Patrick Dempsey’s Hollywood-obsessed detective Mark Kincaid would become one of the most controversial characters in the entire franchise? And, boy, has it been a journey! At the end of Scream 3 in 2001, the cozy familiarity between Sidney and Kincaid, who flirted with her during a very unsexy murder spree, seemed to be confirmed with the brief shot of him carrying popcorn through her living room for a movie night with Gale and Dewey (David Arquette). Maybe Sidney had found someone who not only survived the carnage but wasn’t scared off by her (and his) scars. Reports that Dempsey was invited back for but declined due to his prior commitments to Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon also suggested that their connection would have been explored further.

But his absence took that away from fans wanting to see Sidney in a relationship that didn’t involve blood spatter. Cut to Scream (2022) when Sidney mentions she is married to Mark. Fans were suddenly validated for years of speculation that she and Kincaid had, in fact, been sitting in a tree, K-I-L-L-I-N-G… oh, you get the rest. But just as quickly, those hopes were dashed for good in the lead-up to Scream 7 when the aforementioned Mark was announced as… Joel McHale.

So, what happened? Dempsey has spoken about being approached for Scream 7, but not being able make the schedule work again. It would seem there were talks about the original Mark being this Mark. Yet, Campbell was never convinced that her final Mark was Kincaid. In Ashley Cullins’ oral history, Your Favorite Scary Movie: How the Scream Films Rewrote the Rules of Horror, Campbell was pretty blunt in saying, “I thought it was just a random name.” So, who is to be believed? Always trust in Sidney Prescott, we say. But regardless, it doesn’t look like that movie night in 2001 turned into a lifetime of happiness — or at least 25 years of it before whatever madness happens in Scream 7.

Paramount Pictures

Who is Mark Evans?

Seriously? Another Mark? For 30 years at this point, it has become clear that being involved with Sidney Prescott must be done at your own risk. Not by her actions, but because of the psychos out there who think they know her. One of the most intriguing things about Scream 7 is learning how small-town police officer Mark Evans managed to not only scale the walls Sidney has put up around her life, but also build a life together with all the paranoia and trauma of the past.

The trailers for the new film haven’t been shy about showing Mark in a pretty bloody situation involving Ghostface and plastic wrap. But we will wait to see if the man who stole Sidney’s heart and gave her a family makes it out alive, or if he will follow in the footsteps of Billy and Derek — kill or be killed.

Scream 7, In Theaters, February 27