[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Scream VI.]

In Scream, Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich) and Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard) were two Woodsboro High School students who thought they had concocted a winning plan to kill their classmates, frame Sidney’s (Neve Campbell) father for the crimes, and convince local law enforcement that they were the sole survivors. They had no reason to hide their identities.

Mrs. Loomis (Laurie Metcalf) had her reporter pseudonym, Debbie Salt, but ultimately confirmed she was indeed Billy Loomis’ mother. Mickey’s (Timothy Olyphant) motive demanded he keep his real name so he could reap the benefits of his dream trial. Scream 3’s Roman (Scott Foley) had no reason to change his name given Sidney never even knew she had a half-brother, and with Jill’s (Emma Roberts) fame-seeking narrative in Scream 4, it made sense for her and Charlie (Rory Culkin) to maintain their real identities. That brings us to Scream 2022.
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Similar to Billy and Stu, Richie (Jack Quaid) and Amber (Mikey Madison) planned to frame Sam (Melissa Barrera) for the killings and convince the authorities that they were the sole survivors. Why bother using pseudonyms if that’s how they pictured things panning out? However, then we meet Richie’s family in Scream VI — his father Detective Wayne Bailey (Dermot Mulroney), his sister Quinn Bailey (Liana Liberato), and his brother Ethan Landry (Jack Champion). So who’s using the fake name here? Is the family’s real surname Kirsch, Bailey, or Landry?

Image via Paramount

I asked Scream VI producer Chad Villella and directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett just that. As soon as the question came up, Bettinelli-Olpin joked, “What? I’m sorry, I think we have to go.” He continued, “We’ve had this debate a lot of like, what are the fake names or the real names? Is Bailey real or is Kirsch? And we have an internal debate with us and [screenwriters] Guy [Busick] and Jamie [Vanderbilt].”

Gillett jumped in to tease the possibility of a third option we might not have heard; “I think we’ve decided, and correct me if I’m wrong, that Kirsch is a pseudonym and Bailey is also a pseudonym. That the real name is whoever they were in the Midwest.” However, he also pointed out, “But then there’s an issue with that tracking with him transferring to the NYPD.”

Given they haven’t settled on a definitive answer just yet, let’s consider the possibilities. Yes, it might be extremely difficult (too difficult) for Richie’s father to have transferred from being a small-town cop to a big-city detective while using a fake name. But, would it make any sense for Richie to have credited himself as “Richie Kirsch” in his homemade fan films if that wasn’t his real name as a kid?

Image via Paramount

Another element to consider is that there’s no mention of Richie, Ethan, and Quinn’s mother. Perhaps their parents separated at some point, Richie took his mother’s maiden name and Quinn kept her father’s last name. But then what about Ethan’s last name? Could he indeed have tricked Blackmore College admissions and been enrolled with a fake last name? Given Wayne helped Richie steal evidence to build a Ghostface shrine, that doesn’t seem out of the realm of possibility. And could Landry be the Midwest surname Gillett referred to or is there a fourth name in play?

Personally? Richie crediting himself with the last name Kirsch in his fan films is key, leaving me more willing to believe Detective Bailey did manage to trick the system while transferring — unless he’s got a different surname than Richie’s mother in which case both Kirsch and Bailey would be real names.

Looking for even more Scream VI spoiler details to consider? Be sure to check out our full 30-minute spoiler interview with Villella, Bettinelli-Olpin, and Gillett in the video at the top of this article, and the spoiler portion of our Collider Ladies Night episode with Melissa Barrera below: