Marlon Wayans and the Scary Movie team worked fast to incorporate references to the new Michael Jackson biopic in the upcoming parody film.

The Wayans family and Rick Alvarez wrote the sixth instalment, which parodies horrors such as Get Out, M3GAN, Smile, The Substance and the most recent Scream films, among others.

After wrapping filming in November 2025, they were inspired to do an additional three days of shooting in April – several weeks before the film’s release – to incorporate references to the 2025 horrors Weapons and Sinners and the new biopic Michael.

Explaining the quick turnaround, Wayans told Variety, “When you’re raised in sketch, you’re turning over every week. We did that additional photography in April and thought, let’s run and gun. And so we shot all these pages of new stuff that wound up being hilarious and made it into the movie. We work fast.”

Wayans, who also produced and stars in the film, added that he felt inspired when he saw the trailer for Michael, which was released in April, and quickly wrote a scene with Alvarez before tapping Saturday Night Live star Kenan Thompson to play the King of Pop.

“It took us less than half a day to write a really funny scene, and we thought Kenan Thompson would be a perfect Michael because he’s so lovable, and it would be such a great mashup to see someone from SNL in the In Living Color world,” he shared.

Michael Jackson previously appeared as a character in Scary Movie 3 and Scary Movie 4, played by Edward Moss.

In the sixth instalment, Wayans reprises his role as Shorty Meeks from the first two films alongside Regina Hall as his sister Brenda. Anna Faris also returns as long-running franchise lead Cindy Campbell, and Shawn Wayans is back as Ray.

Teasing what fans can expect, Marlon told the outlet that “the world needs to laugh”.

“We’re here to remind people what it’s like to laugh and feel good. We’re all too in our phones,” he stated. “There’s nothing more infectious than sitting and laughing in a theatre with a bunch of people with different age ranges and backgrounds. We want you to go be 15 again. Post-COVID, we need this.”

Scary Movie is now showing in cinemas.

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