“	I'm like... 99% sure that you're not the killer.	”
–Chad to Liv McKenzie

Chad Meeks-Martin is a main character in Scream (2022 film), and its sequels, Scream VI (2023 film) and Scream 7. He is a survivor of the 26th anniversary Legacy Killings (2022) in Woodsboro, California and the New York Killings (2023) in New York City, New York.

He is the nephew to original Scream (1996) character, Randy Meeks and the son of his sister, Martha Meeks. Despite being Randy's nephew, he does not share many characteristics with his uncle, unlike his twin sister, Mindy. Chad was part of the Woodsboro High Football Team and won the heart of Liv McKenzie.

When a new Ghostface entity strikes, Chad immediately suspects 22-year old Vince Schneider who had stalked Liv's Instagram, having previously been in a relationship with her. When Vince attempts to steal Liv back, Chad threatens him. Vince is later murdered, making Chad a suspect.

He is later attacked after trying to track down Liv at Wes Hicks' memorial party at Amber's house. After almost being fatally stabbed and left to bleed out, he was somehow resuscitated, and appears in medical emergency recovery in his last frame.

Chad later enrolls at Blackmore University and moves to New York City where he, Mindy, and Tara Carpenter attend. He is assigned to be roommates with Ethan Landry who he forms a close friendship with. As he gets closer to Tara, he strikes up a romantic relationship with her and he is later stabbed multiple times by two Ghostface killers whilst trying to protect her and is once again left for dead, however he is able to survive his injuries once more.

He is portrayed by Mason Gooding.

Biography

Background

Chad was born on aproximately September 30, 2003 alongside his twin sister, Mindy to approx. 21-year-old, Martha Meeks (who appears in Scream 3).

The Woodsboro Legacy Murders (2022)

“	Listen, all I'm saying is with everything going on right now, I think it's time we take our relationship to the next, most intimate level. (...) It's the smartest option with a would-be killer on the loose. You know exactly where I am and I know exactly where you are.	”
–Chad to his late girlfriend, Liv, and proposing to accept his GPS social-media like request, FindMyFam, during the 2022 Legacy Murders, Scream (2022)

After Tara Carpenter is attacked at her home, Chad and his friends go to visit her after school, in the hospital after calling Tara's half-sister, Samantha Carpenter, back to Woodsboro. Chad is questioned about the bruises on his arm by Amber Freeman and then defends his girlfriend, Liv McKenzie, against Vince Schneider, a former summer romance of hers who is now stalking her through Woodsboro. As the friends hang out in a bar, Vince confronts them causing Chad to threaten him and getting everyone kicked out.

The next day, Chad and Mindy host all their friends, Samantha, her boyfriend, Richie Kirsch, and former Sheriff Dewey Riley at their home as they discuss the latest attacks and try to figure out who the Ghostface killer(s) is or what their motive is, much to Chad's confusion as to Samantha's origin. After everyone, Chad included, accuses Samantha of being the killer and due to being Billy Loomis' daughter after she mentioned and pinpointed how all the attacks are on people related to the original killers, with Mindy laying out the rules and how she and Chad are probably screwed (due to being Randy's niece and nephew), she leaves in anger.

The next night, Amber hosts a party at her house to which Chad, through drinking, dedicates to Wes Hicks's memory, as he was killed the day before alongside his mother, Sheriff Judy Hicks. Amber scolds Chad for doing shots at Wes' memorial party, which he defends by saying it's how he mourns and is distracting himself from "the looming spectre of Death". Later, Liv and Chad are seen making out on the couch downstairs. Liv tells Chad she wants to go all the way with him, but being distrustful of everyone, he respectfully declines, causing Liv to storm out of the party.

Chad then gets a text from Liv with a GPS tracker of her phone and he follows her to try and apologize, unaware that it's actually a trap set by the killer. Chad tries to flee, but Amber as Ghostface bursts out of a shed behind him and chases him, stabbing him six times, with Chad falling in pain. Before Amber could try to finish him off, she is interrupted by Richie's vehicle pulling up in front of the house, causing her to flee as he bleeds out.

Liv claims to have found his body outside after the party died down and people were forced to leave, believing him to be dead when she's accused of being the killer for having his blood on her hands. Chad is later revealed to have survived his attack, being wheeled out on a stretcher conscious, exchanging a glance with Mindy, who also survived her attack.

Aftermath

After recovering from his injuries and later graduating from Woodsboro High School, Chad either was awarded a athletic scholarship to or he himself enrolls at Blackmore University with Mindy and the pair move to New York City with Tara, who is also attending, with Sam following them not long after to be with Tara. Chad is then assigned to be roommates with Ethan Landry, who manipulated the allocations to get close to him, and he forms a close friendship with him. It's likely he's taking a Films Studies class alongside his film major sister and Tara.

The New York City Murders (2023)

“	This'll be so fun. A little slumber party with the Core Four (...) Yeah. I sure did. I mean we've been through a lot together and it's a pretty cool nickname.	”
–Chad to Sam, her sister and love interest, Tara, and his twin sister Mindy, officially indicting their group nickname and as successors to the Legacy Trio, Scream VI

Chad attends a Halloween frat party with Ethan, Tara, Mindy, and her girlfriend, Anika Kayoko, and is called in as a reinforcement when Tara is groomed by a date-raper student, Frankie, who wants to take advantage of her. Chad gets into a physical altercation with the student and the fight is broken up by Sam who tases the student in the testicles. Chad leaves the party with the rest of the group and witnesses Sam being ambushed by internet users who believe she framed Richie and Amber for the 26th Woodsboro Legacy Murders, approximately thirteen months prior in September 2022.

Chad returns to Sam and Tara's apartment, which they share with roommate, Quinn Bailey, and comforts Tara before confessing his feelings for her. He leans in for a kiss, but they are interrupted by Quinn who is looking for her phone. Chad and the rest of the group watch a news report on the murders of Jason Carvey and Greg Bruckner. The next afternoon, Chad joins Mindy and the rest of the group where Mindy discusses the rules about the "sequel to the requel".

The group gather for dinner that night and Chad nicknames the survivors the "core four". When they are ambushed by Ghostface, who murders Quinn, Chad and Tara are able to escape while Mindy, Sam and Anika are forced to escape through Quinn's bedroom through a window using a ladder and Anika is thrown off the ladder to her death. In the aftermath, Chad accuses Ethan of being the killer as he was the only one not with the group that night, but backs off after Ethan gives an alibi.

Gale Weathers then reunites with the group and takes them to a shrine allegedly built by Jason and Greg which is dedicated to Ghostface. When Wayne Bailey, Quinn's father, devises a plan to trace the killer, Chad hides in a police van with Mindy, Ethan and Kirby Reed while Kirby tracks down a phone call from Ghostface. When Gale is later attacked by Ghostface, Chad goes to her apartment building's lobby with the rest of the group and Tara comes up with a plan to trap Ghostface and Wayne instructs them to travel in public.

The group board a subway, but are separated from Ethan and Mindy after they are held back by commuters. When they arrive at the shrine, Sam sends her boyfriend, Danny Brackett, away while the rest of the group hide inside.

When the group arrives at the theatre, he confesses his feelings for Tara and kisses her. As soon as he could kiss her again, Ghostface arrives and stabs Tara on the back of her shoulder. Chad then knocks down Ghostface telling Tara to run. As they are running, Sam gets in the way in which Chad tells her to run. As they are running, Ghostface catches up with them, but Chad knocks him down, but a second Ghostface comes and stabs him. They stab Chad multiple times and then leave him for the dead.

Chad's fate is unknown until he is rolled out of the theatre on a stretcher, still alive. Tara and Sam run over to greet him joyfully, with Tara kissing Chad. Mindy shows up after and goes in the ambulance with him to the hospital.

The Pine Grove Murders (2026)

After the New York attacks, Chad is first seen coming out of the car that Gale Weathers had ran over Karl Gibbs with alongside his twin-sister Mindy Meeks-Martin as Gale's new interns and the three of them had arrived to Pine Grove, Indiana to investigate and uncover the new Ghostface killers after Sidney, her husband Mark, and their daughter Tatum are attacked in their home.

The next night, Chad and Mindy join Tatum and her friends Chloe, Ben and Lucas at the bar that Chloe's family owns, since everyone is a suspect. Sidney sits down for an interview with Gale, which Chad and his friends watch. At the interview, “Stu” calls Sidney and says he is outside the bar where Tatum is and the lights go out at the bar.

Jessica (as Ghostface), after attacking Chloe prior to their attack, attacks Chad and Mindy, by pulling out the knife out of Chad's chest after Chloe Parker had accidentally stabbed him with it and after attacking Chloe and Chad, Mindy pops up from behind a hiding spot nearby the bar inside the kitchen and hits Jessica with a frying pan hard in the face only to be sliced back in the stomach and pushed onto Chad, knocking the Meeks-Martins twins both out temporarily.

In the aftermath of the finale, Chad and Mindy were supposedly picked up at Parker’s Tavern after their injuries off-screen by Gale, and Chad claims he still is not able to hold a camera twice, but Mindy claims to feel better once Gale approves of her wanting to do the report on these events, and both the Meeks-Martin twins are seen, with Chad filming and Mindy reporting these events.

Relationships

Family Martha Meeks - Mother Mindy Meeks-Martin - Sister Randy Meeks † - Uncle Mr. Meeks - Grandfather Mrs. Meeks - Grandmother Allies Sidney Prescott Woodsboro, California Dewey Riley † - Mother's Friend Judy Hicks † Woodsboro High School Wes Hicks † - Childhood Best Friend Tara Carpenter - Girlfriend Liv McKenzie † - Former Girlfriend Principal - Former Principal Modesto, California Samantha Carpenter - Former Babysitter Blackmore University Anika Kayoko † - Former Friend Laura Crane † - Possible Former Teacher New York City, New York Gale Weathers Danny Brackett Atlanta, Georgia Kirby Reed Pine Grove Mark Evans Tatum Evans Chloe Parker † Lucas Bowden † Ben Brown †

Enemies Ghostface Richie Kirsch † - Sister's Attempted Killer Amber Freeman † - Ex-Friend / Attempted Killer Wayne Bailey † Ethan Landry † - Ex-Friend / Former Roommate / Attempted Killer Quinn Bailey † - Ex-Friend / Attempted Killer Jessica Bowden † - Attempted Killer Marco Davis † Karl Gibbs † Woodsboro, California Vince Schneider † - Former Girlfriend's Ex-Boyfriend Blackmore University Frankie - Girlfriend's Attempted Rapist Jason Carvey † - Possible Former Classmate Greg Bruckner † - Possible Former Classmate Pine Grove Robbie Rivers - Dislike

Quotes

By Chad

Scream (2022)

• "And you can stalk me like a jealous boyfriend!"
• "Not to sound like a stereotypical jock who's trying to get into his girlfriend's pants, but..." (About Liv)
• "Ah, yes. Thank you very much, Edward Snowden." (To Wes)
• "Actually, your mother just interrogated me about Tara's attempted murder, which was very fun".
• "Time to introduce him to Hobbs and Shaw." (About Vince)
• "Alright, listen up, uglier Michael Myers. It was a summer fling, alright? It meant nothing." (Chad to Vince)
• "I don't fucking care who you're talking to." (To Vince)
• "Don't you fucking talk to her, I don't wanna hear your goddamn voice." (To Vince)
• "But, then why immediately go and murder some douche-nozzle that was stalking Liv?" (To Samantha)
• "God, please speak English" (to Mindy when she's explaining requel rules)
• "Hey! To Wes!"
• "(Muttering) Beautiful son of a bitch."
• "Well, this is how I mourn and distract myself from the looming specter of death." (To Amber)
• "Jesus, Mindy. That's my girlfriend and I love her."
• "Well, you're just gonna sit here and watch a movie about our uncle getting stabbed?"
• "Oh my god, at least take some sort of weapon." (Mindy to her brother)
• "Woah, stop! Wait Wait Wait!" (Chad to Ghostface/Amber before getting attacked)

Scream VI (2023)

• "Alright, cheers, man. To the dynamic duo of Hortense Tower, third floor, room 315"
• "Oh, man. Time to start making moves. Yeah, get you out there, introduce you to some girls. What about her?"
• "Ask her out! Ask her out!"
• "Got to have confidence. Plus, look at you, man! Your'e a snack! Practically an entire meal all on your own!"
• "Yeah. You're Ethan Landry. Hey, excuse me. Howdy. How you doing? My friend here, he's a a snack, right?" (to an attractive girl dancing and dressed in Harry Potter-esque clothes, asking her if she likes his friend)
• "No, it's good. It's not bad. There's room for improvement."
• "Hey, partner. Tara's good down here (...) Yeah, you did." (to Frankie confronting him as he takes Tara upstairs at at frat party)
• "How about you get your fucking hands off her? You got a FUCKING problem?" (Chad as he pushes Frankie off Tara due to him pulling her and almost fighting with him)
• "That's too bad. I was actually looking forward to getting some shots in while I can." (to Tara in her room alone after dropping off her medication and flirting with her, sparking their romance)
• "Survivors gotta stick together... you know"
• "And besides, you know you can do a lot better than Date-Rape Frankie"
• "Tara, you're... I think you're really special"
• "I'm gonna go. But get some rest, get sober, and please don't kill your sister, okay? She loves you very much. Good night". (Chad leaving after almost kissing Tara and being interrupted/"cock-blocked" (in her own words) by Quinn Bailey walking into Tara's room to get her phone)
• "Still nothing from Mindy"
• "This'll be so fun. A little slumber party with the Core Four (...) Yeah. I sure did. I mean we've been through a lot together and it's a pretty cool nickname".
• "You know I would appreciate some respect from my fellow Core Four members".
• "Where the FUCK were you last night? HUH!?"
• "Smile for the camera, motherfucker!"

Paternity

The question of his paternity has been speculated, as some fans alleged the father was an important past character. On March 16, 2022, Heather Matarazzo (who portrays Chad's mother, Martha) did a Twitter Q&A with fans. She re-fuelled speculation after she claimed to know the identity of her on-screen twin children, Chad and Mindy's father.[3]

After several "No" responses, she liked a tweet, asking her to "confirm or deny" with a screenshot of Joel, the cameraman from Scream 2 whose news van was an accessory to Randy's murder, and never re-addressed the topic following this in the Q&A.[4]

• Actor Duane Martin's surname is also, of course, Martin, a possible nod to his character all along (and a re-working from the original Scream Forever draft where the twins were originally Martinez). This possibility corroborates previous uses by Radio Silence, by using the real-life actor's surname for an unidentified surname of a character, such as Kenny Brown, the cameraman in the original Scream and his actor, W. Earl Brown.

• It also corroborates rumors of Duane Martin's planned return in Scream (2022) that was speculated to be scrapped for COVID-19 reasons, as he teased a return on Instagram that never transpired.

• Radio Silence spoke to journalist Meagan Navarro and stated that Joel was once mentioned in the official script for Scream (2022) at one point, but it was cut. Given he would have no prior connections to anyone else, it further consolidates this theory.[5]

• Some fans have expressed disliking towards the possibility—due to the appropriateness of it—given the age gap between Martha and Joel when seen in their first appearances (17 and approx. 20s respectively). However, it is possible the pair met much later when Martha was around 20 (circa 2002) before she was pregnant in 2003. If Martha's mother, after Dewey contacted her about his death came to pick up the body where Joel's van would be a crime scene, it is likely she met Joel; a connection with the Meeks family may have formed slowly over time from there.

Trivia

• His character name was confirmed by HelloSidney.com.^[2]
• He is the jock fraternal twin brother of Mindy Meeks-Martin.
• It was confirmed on the promotional TikTok @toobrashsarah that Randy Meeks is his uncle before the fifth film's release.
• In the original draft script, Chad and his twin sister's surname was "Meeks-Martinez", and their father named Carlos appears in the house with Martha.^[3]
• In the original draft script, Chad was originally supposed to be killed off. After a couple of Zoom meetings with his actor, Mason Gooding, they decided to not kill him off.
• Chad's birthday shared with twin sister, Mindy, despite being born in 2003, is viable and in order to be timeline conflicted, but canonical, for their ages to align, their birthday can be no earlier than September 30th, 2003 (Continuity Errors; see References below) who perhaps repeated their senior year as well, being in the same grade as Tara (and Amber, also), or otherwise graduated in 2023 and were juniors in 2021, only being slightly older than Wes and Liv.
• Chad is sarcastic, humorous, and defensive when it comes to watching out for his partner and friends.
  • This resembles traits seen with other male characters within the franchise (excluding his uncle, Randy Meeks) such as Dewey Riley, Derek Feldman, Noah Foster, Jake Fitzgerald, Gustavo Acosta, Marcus Elliot, and Tyson Fox.
  • Despite not being a killer, his sarcastic and dim-witted humor is similar to that of male killers Billy Loomis, Stu Macher, Mickey Altieri, Roman Bridger, Charlie Walker, Kieran Wilcox, Jamal Elliot, Richie Kirsch, Jason Carvey, Wayne Bailey, and Ethan Landry as well as non-killer, Cotton Weary.
• In Scream VI, he resembles Derek Feldman as when ask to stay away from by his love interest, he takes his chances and stays by her to protect her.
  • Unlike Derek, he narrowly survives after being left for dead.
• The scene of Chad being attacked outside of 261 Turner Lane is a slight parallel to how other victims were attacked during their run ins (all unexpectedly) with Ghostface and were ultimately killed, such as: Kenny Brown in Scream, Hallie McDaniel in Scream 2, Steven Stone in Scream 3, and Robbie Mercer in Scream 4. Unlike his predecessors who died outside, Chad survives his.
  • His attack is also paralleled in the TV series with the attacks of Riley Marra in Season 1, as well as Liv Reynolds in Season 3, due to each being stabbed in their legs and their arteries.
• Chad is overall the third jock character and athlete in the Scream films, the first being Steven Orth and the most recent being Trevor Sheldon.
  • He is the ninth overall athletic male character in the franchise, preceded by Will Belmont, Jake Fitzgerald, and Gustavo Acosta from seasons 1-2 of the TV series, as well as by Marcus Elliot, Avery Collins, and Hawkins from Season 3.
• Chad is the second Black male character to survive the attacks of Ghostface in the franchise, with the first being Marcus Elliot from Season 3 of the TV series.
  • The first would indirectly be Joel (Chad's possible father) from Scream 2, who despite never having been attacked, was associated as he was the new cameraman of one of Ghostface's enemies, Gale Weathers.
  • He survives Phil Stevens, Tyson Fox, and Anthony Perkins before him in the films; also preceding and succeeding Deion Elliot, Amir Ayoub, Latavious, B. Westbrook, and Jamal Elliot from Season 3 of the TV series, respectively.
• Chad coining his group's name (Core Four) after a number makes him the second male character in the Scream franchise to coin a group name moniker with a number, and the first character of the films overall, to do so.
  • Preceded by Noah Foster (Lakewood Six, now Five) as the horror expert from the first two seasons of the TV series. Like Noah, Chad also coined his group's name after surviving each's respective first massacres, part of their town's generational murders (Chad in the Third Woodsboro Murders in September 2022, Noah in the Second Lakewood Murders, from September 2015-February 2016)
    • Like Noah, both have had two girlfriends (Noah's first being Riley and the second being Zoë Vaughn) not long following having survived a massacre.
    • Unlike Noah's girlfriends both being deceased, Chad's second girlfriend, Tara, isn't and both survived alongside each other following their attacks.
• Chad and Mindy are the second pair of twin siblings (first of the opposite sex as well) and the second brother and sister duo in the franchise, preceded by Dewey and Tatum, and by Marcus and Deion Elliot.
• Chad's line in the fifth film "Time to introduce him to Hobbs and Shaw", when flexing his muscle in regards to going to confront his first girlfriend's Liv's older fling, Vince, is a reference to the Fast and Furious franchise spin-off film Hobbs and Shaw (2019), starring Jason Statham as Deckard Shaw and Dwayne Johnson as Luke Hobbs.
  • Coincidentally, the names are surnames to TV show female characters being Lakewood Slasher killer Piper Shaw in Season 1 and Anna Hobbs, unrelated, from the Halloween specials of Season 2 (Hobbs).
• He is the only jock involved in the Woodsboro Murders that has survived. (both Steven Orth and Trevor being the others that were murdered.)
  • He is also the only Black male to survive the attacks of Ghostface in the main Scream films; he's also the first Black jock to survive, overall.
• He homages Steven Orth, as Liv carries an inverse story to Casey Becker creating a Casey-Steve dynamic. Where they dump a Macher to be with a jock. Casey dumps Stu to be with Steve, while Liv dumps Vince to be with Chad.
  • He also reverses the stereotype as it's shown that Liv was trying to have sex with Chad in their relationship instead of Chad trying to get it on with her, seeing as he's the jock. Adamantly, he doesn't fall to his girlfriend's pressure and who perhaps without knowing, survived due to the rules stated by his uncle Randy, in the original Scream about not having sex, giving a reason why, despite being attacked, survived (it's implied that Steven or Trevor did not follow this rule as they were quickly killed off, if the killers follow the original).
• He has had two girlfriends so far, with them being Liv first in the fifth film, then her co-worker, Tara in the sixth film.
• Despite doubts of his return, Mason Gooding was confirmed to be returning as Chad for Scream 7.^[4] He's the first of two new major characters from the Radio Silence movies that will return in the upcoming movie, alongside his twin sister, Mindy.

Gallery

Chad Meeks-Martin has a Photo Gallery.

Appearances

• Scream (2022 film)
• Scream VI^[5]
• Scream 7

Character Guide

Scream (2022) Characters
Core Four	Samantha Carpenter • Tara Carpenter • Mindy Meeks-Martin • Chad Meeks-Martin
Principal Characters	Richie Kirsch • Wes Hicks • Liv McKenzie • Amber Freeman • Ghostface
Supporting Characters	Vince Schneider • Deputy Farney • Deputy Vinson
Legacy Characters	Dewey Riley • Gale Weathers • Sidney Prescott • Billy Loomis (hallucinations) • Randy Meeks (photo)
Ghostface(s)	Amber Freeman • Richie Kirsch
Recurring Characters	Judy Hicks • Martha Meeks (cameo) • Kirby Reed (photo) • Jennifer Jolie (photo) • Roman Bridger (archive footage of Scott Foley) • Tori Spelling (photo) • Casey Becker (Stab)/Heather Graham (photo) • Billy Loomis (Stab)/Luke Wilson (photo)
Cameo Characters	Christopher Speed (fiction) • Frances • Principal

Scream VI Characters
Core Four	Samantha Carpenter • Tara Carpenter • Mindy Meeks-Martin • Chad Meeks-Martin
Principal Characters	Anika Kayoko • Quinn Bailey • Danny Brackett • Ethan Landry • Jason Carvey • Wayne Bailey • Ghostface
Supporting Characters	Laura Crane • Christopher Stone • Brooks • Greg Bruckner • Frankie • Bodega Victims (Bodega Clerk • Burly Guy) • L. Sarraz
Cameo Characters	Richie Kirsch (video footage) • Stu Macher (photo) • Amber Freeman (photo) • Jill Roberts (photo) • Charlie Walker (photo) • Nancy Loomis (photo) • Mickey Altieri (photo) • Roman Bridger (photo)
Legacy Characters	Gale Weathers • Kirby Reed • Billy Loomis (hallucinations) • Dewey Riley (photos)
Ghostface(s)	Jason Carvey • Wayne Bailey • Ethan Landry • Quinn Bailey

Scream 7 Characters
Legacy Characters	Sidney Prescott • Gale Weathers • Dewey Riley • Stu Macher • Roman Bridger • Nancy Loomis
Recurring Characters	Chad Meeks-Martin • Mindy Meeks-Martin
Principal Characters	Tatum Evans • Mark Evans • Ben Brown • Lucas Bowden • Chloe Parker • Hannah Thurman • Jessica Bowden • Marco Davis • Ghostface
Supporting Characters	Robbie Rivers • George Willis • Madison • Scott • Aaron • Karl Gibbs • Deputy Meadows • Deputy Cooke • Junie Evans • Emma Evans • Rebecca Evans
Ghostface(s)	Jessica Bowden • Marco Davis • Karl Gibbs

References