Marlon Wayans’ One Big Hope for Scary Movie 6

Marlon Wayans has one wish for Scary Movie 6 — and it has nothing to do with box office numbers. He just wants people to laugh together again.

More than a decade after the franchise went quiet, Wayans is back, and he’s bringing the whole family with him. He wrote the script for the upcoming sixth installment alongside brothers Shawn Wayans and Keenen Ivory Wayans — the same trio who helped turn the original Scary Movie into a cultural phenomenon back in 2000. For Marlon, this isn’t just a comeback. It’s a reset, and a purposeful one.

“People want to feel good again,” he told Empire. “It’s been a long time since we felt good, and laughter is bonding, and when was the last time we all came together as a country, as a world, to just sit down and laugh at each other and with each other?”

It’s a genuinely big swing for a franchise that made its name on gross-out gags and horror spoofs. But Wayans is leaning into it fully, and he’s not interested in playing it safe along the way.

No Fear, No Timid Jokes

Wayans was clear with Empire about the kind of comedy audiences should expect: boundary-free, unapologetic, and willing to sit in the discomfort before finding the release.

“It’s okay if the audience goes, ‘Ooooooh!’” he said, mimicking a wince. “If they go, ‘Oooooh!’, you don’t turn away from that. You go, ‘Okay they’re listening. Now let me keep digging until I find the laughter.’ There’s no fear in comedy. You can’t be timid.”

That philosophy has always been the engine behind the Scary Movie franchise. The original debuted in July 2000 and became an instant hit, skewering horror tropes with gleeful, over-the-top satire. Three sequels followed — in 2001, 2003, and 2006 — before the franchise took a long pause. Scary Movie 5 arrived in 2013 without the Wayans brothers involved, and the gap since then has been significant. This return feels like a reclaiming.

Both Marlon and Shawn will reprise their roles, joined by returning cast members Anna Faris, Regina Hall, and Dave Sheridan — a reunion that signals a genuine effort to recapture the original’s energy rather than just cash in on the name.

What the Film Is Actually Spoofing

The trailer that dropped in March sent fans into a frenzy the moment they started clocking the cameos. Ghostface from Scream, M3GAN, Leatherface, and Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th all appear, mixing legacy horror icons with newer pop culture monsters in a way that feels both nostalgic and genuinely current.

The film is also expected to take aim at The Conjuring universe and the revived Scream franchise. And in one of the more fun details, there’s a comedic character named Tuesday — a clear send-up of Jenna Ortega’s Wednesday from Netflix’s massively popular Wednesday series, itself inspired by The Addams Family.

It’s exactly the kind of blend that made the franchise work in the first place: take what everyone’s watching, exaggerate it until it breaks, and trust the audience to come along for the ride.

The Man Who Spoofs Horror Is Scared of Horror

Here’s the twist nobody saw coming. Despite spending much of his career dunking on the genre, Marlon Wayans is not exactly a horror devotee himself.

“I don’t have the strongest stomach for horror,” he laughed. “When it gets too dark, it makes the hair on my arms stand up and I’m just like, ‘Yo, this is creepy, man!’”

It’s a funny admission — and maybe not entirely surprising. Understanding what makes something scary well enough to mock it perfectly might actually require feeling those nerves in the first place. Wayans knows the formula from the inside out, which is precisely why he can twist it so effectively.

Scary Movie 6 arrives in theaters this June.