Dermot Mulroney shares some massive details about his Scream VI character, Detective Wayne Bailey

Some interesting news on the patriarch of Scream’s first murderous family today.

Star Dermot Mulroney was at the Calgary Expo this weekend and chatted to fan Zack Cherry (below) about his role as Detective Wayne Bailey in Scream VI. In the movie it was revealed that Detective Bailey was actually the father of one of the killers from the previous movie, Richie Kirsch (played by Jack Quaid) and had become Ghostface to get revenge on Sam Carpenter (played by Melissa Barerra) who killed Richie. On top of that, Bailey’s other two kids Ethan and Quinn, were also Ghostfaces in the movie, meaning the whole family – or all that we’ve seen – were murders.

In a recent interview with actress Liana Liberato who played Quinn, she revealed that in the original script, Wayne’s wife and mother to her, Richie and Ethan, didn’t agree with them planning revenge and tried to stop them but was murdered by Wayne and at the time I thought this should have remained in the movie as it would have explained why Quinn and Ethan were also killers, likely out of fear of their father.

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Now, in the new interview, Mulroney reveals some new and interesting details about Wayne and also that he’s in the dark about some aspects of the character too.

One of the big questions left open by Scream VI is whether or not Bailey really is a detective: “Good question… gosh, maybe he’s not. I’ll tell you what, I sure thought he was,” Mulroney says.

But if Ritchie’s name is Kirsch, does that mean that Bailey’s name really is Kirsch too? “Oh, yeah, his name is Kirsch,” says Mulroney… when pushed, although never mentioned in the script, he said he thinks he’s called Stephen.

However, while this mystery is left unanswered – likely to be answered in a later movie –  it’s the details about where Bailey actually comes form that is the most interesting, as Mulroney goes on: “Detective Wayne Bailey, you know, he’s from Woodsboro…”

He goes on to ponder if that detail was left out of the film in the cutting room (It was), going on: “He’s from Woodsboro and he got himself hired to the New York Police, cream-of-the-crop, New York! 

“How did he get hired when he was already involved in investigating five.. knife-wielding murder sprees in Woodsboro, working with Dewey [Riley, played by David Arquette in the movies]?”

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Does this explain how the Museum of Ghostface came to be? Because Bailey/Kirsch had access to the police evidence? It would also explain why he was so clued in on all the killings – remember, he knew that Gale (Courtenay Cox) had never spoken to Ghostface on the phone despite five previous encounters and it also means that Mulroney is here saying that his character worked with Dewey in Woodsboro and investigated every Ghostface killer, hence the five.

This is all very interesting stuff and something that I refuse to believe that directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, not to mention writers James Vanderbilt, Guy Busick and Kevin Williamson weren’t planning on developing further, had the original plans for Scream VII went ahead.

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One final bit of information is that we’d need to assume that Bailey is a real cop that somehow Kirsch stole his identity – I think this because if he was Officer/Detective Bailey in Woodsboro, Kirby Reed [Hayden Panettiere] who we previously met in Scream IV when she was left for dead and who returned as an FBI agent, would almost certainly have known of him or recognised the name. Did Bailey kill a Detective and steal his identity? Heck, I can’t help feeling there’s a novel or comic series out there to explain this: I’d read it!

So, he was a cop who worked with Dewey in Woodsboro and was involved in all five previous cases, he raised a son who was obsessed with the Scream/Ghostface killers, who was then killed when he became one himself, he then hatched a plan to exact revenge for his dead so by making his whole family Ghostface killers – except his wife, who disagreed and was killed off camera – and along the way, stole a detective’s identity and stole all the previous Ghostface evidence. Man, I think we need his story told… it certainly makes him more formidable within the lore than he came across in the movie…

Thoughts on all this? Do you think this makes his character better or do you think this just muddies the water? Let me know.

Check out the interview here:

Dermot Mulroney is an absolute gem of a human. He also gave me Bailey’s real name… which I’m considering as canon until stated otherwise #CalgaryExpo #Scream #Ghostface pic.twitter.com/9lUQv6gB6v

— (@ZackCherry8) April 28, 2024

Following the latest Ghostface killings, the four survivors leave Woodsboro behind and start a fresh chapter. In Scream VI, Melissa Barrera (“Sam Carpenter”), Jasmin Savoy Brown (“Mindy Meeks-Martin”), Mason Gooding (“Chad Meeks-Martin”), Jenna Ortega (“Tara Carpenter”), Hayden Panettiere (“Kirby Reed”) and Courteney Cox (“Gale Weathers”) return to their roles in the franchise alongside Jack Champion, Henry Czerny, Liana Liberato, Dermot Mulroney, Devyn Nekoda, Tony Revolori, Josh Segarra, and Samara Weaving.

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