Courteney Cox has claimed that a Scream legacy character was intended to be killed off in the original movie which would have completely altered the course of the horror franchise.

The Friends actress, 57, has reprised her role as reporter/book author, Gale Weathers, for the fifth movie, entitled Scream, which comes 26 years after the first film was released and is out in cinemas now.

Also returning are Neve Campbell, 48, as long-tortured Sidney Prescott and David Arquette, 50, as a now-retired sheriff, Dewey Riley.

While their characters are now etched forever in horror history, one of them almost didn’t live to see the first sequel.

Speaking to Pedestrian TV , Cox explained: “There was a time, I think it was in the first Scream, where David’s character Dewey was gonna be killed off.

“Then they saw how he came across and people loved him so they scrapped it,” she added of Arquette, who went on to star in the film’s four subsequent sequels.”

The move could have had an affect on real-life events too, as Arquette recently revealed that the director of the original Scream, Wes Craven, had a “real impact” on his relationship with Cox, after encouraging them to get together.

“[He was] like, ‘David, you know she likes you and you should really get your stuff together.’ He gave me a real man-to-man talk and that had an impact on the course of my life,” Arquette told People.

Cox and Arquette got married in 1999, nearly two years after the first Scream movie was released and welcomed a daughter, Coco, in 2004.

In October 2010, they announced their separation, and finalised their divorce in 2013.

Craven died of a brain tumour in 2015 aged 76.