Hayden Panettiere's 7 Best Movies and Shows, Ranked

Image via Dave Bedrosian/Future Image/Cover Images Published Aug 19, 2026, 7:51 AM EDT Samuel is Collider's List Flex Editor (previously Lead List Editor), which means he's pretty much always hovering around Collider's List department. A writing and editing automaton based in Nashville, Tennessee, and sometimes Los Angeles, Samuel has been working in entertainment journalism for over 10 years. Samuel is the guy who talked to Betty White about vodka and hot dogs. Chaz Ebert once pinched Samuel's cheeks after a screening of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, when Samuel told her that Roger was and forever is his hero. William Friedkin once jokingly called Samuel "dad" at a screening of Samuel's favorite movie, The Babadook. Forbes once called Samuel a "sneering critic" because he disliked Don't Look Up. Two major brands have trusted Samuel with curating their respective lists of the 100 Best Movies of All Time. Samuel wrote one of these lists in its entirety. Other career highlights include appearing on KCRW and meeting Joe Morgenstern, and also spending 50 minutes talking to Tommy Wiseau on a landline (which was awesome). Samuel loves his job and is rarely actively not doing it. Sign in to your Collider account There was a natural, effervescent quality in Hayden Panettiere that endeared the late star to audiences for, quite literally, nearly her entire life. It may surprise, perhaps even alarm some to discover that the star we know from Heroes, Nashville, and the Scream franchise worked her first modeling gig at 11 months old. The actress' tragic passing on Sunday Aug. 19, at the age of 36, has sent genuine shockwaves throughout the entertainment industry and beyond. Over the coming days, surely there will be a great deal of discussion of the tragic circumstances surrounding Panettiere's death, the actress' underrated and undeniable gifts as a performer, and, hopefully, a system that took her for granted. The following ranks the very best of a career cut tragically short. 7 'A Bug's Life' (1998) Image via Pixar Then-fledgling animation studio Pixar revolutionized the medium and moviemaking at large with their debut feature-length feature Toy Story in 1995. There was obviously enormous hype and anticipation behind the follow-up, and in November '98, A Bug's Life opened to box-office success and generally positive reviews. It's certainly considered minor Pixar these days relative to numerous stone-cold classics from the studio, but it's a visually dazzling, often funny film that can entertain a general audience of all ages. Panettiere was only about eight years old when she recorded her voice work as Princess Dot, the spunky daughter of the queen of a colony of ants that's under pressure from a predatory gang of grasshoppers. Princess Dot is the first character to believe in the inventions of eccentric hero Flick (Dave Foley), and a fan-favorite character from the film. A Bug's Life isn's as iconic as top-tier Pixar, but it's a reminder of just how strong Pixar's storytelling was from the very beginning, and Dot is obviously proof that Panettiere was a pure talent. 6 'Ice Princess' (2005) Image via Walt Disney Pictures Nearly a decade after her breakthrough in Harriet the Spy at age 11, Michelle Trachtenberg starred in this live-action Disney sports dramedy, an odd but charming film about high-school brainiac Casey Carlyle, who eschews Harvard for dreams of ice skating glory. Panettiere plays young skating rival Gen Harwood, and comedic legends Joan Cusack and Kim Cattrall co-star as the girls' very different respective mothers. Ice Princess underperformed at the box office and received overall mixed reviews, but Roger Ebert was a fan, praising the film for mostly transcending the sports movie formula and being a "perfect" movie for teenagers. The legacy of this sweet family movie is a heavy one; both of the young stars are now dead. Trachtenberg passed away in February 2025, at the age of 39. Surely, realistically, this legacy will be hard for the film to shake. 5 ​​​​​​'Scream VI' (2023) Image via Paramount Wes Craven's final film, Scream 4 was divisive upon its release, and perhaps it still is today. The black sheep of the long-running franchise disappointed at the box office and received lukewarm reviews, though it's important to note it's been critically re-assessed by many over the years. One thing that pretty much everyone could agree on was Panettiere as tomboyish film buff Kirby Reed, one of the most likable characters in any slasher film, frankly. Kirby is knifed down the near the end of Scream 4, but the character's death was never fully confirmed. Fans speculated for over a decade, and were generally hyped when it was announced Panettiere would return for the sixth installment. In Scream VI, Ghostface leaves Woodsboro to wreak havoc on Manhattan, specifically targeting sisters Sam (Melissa Barrera) and Tara (Jenna Ortega). Kirby Reed enters about halfway through, significantly changed since the fourth film, now a hardened FBI Special Agent investigating Ghostface's most recent slayings. A runaway hit at the box office, Scream VI is a solid entry of the franchise, especially relative to this year's Scream 7. It's only really let down by a convoluted killer reveal in act three. Collider Exclusive · Horror Survival Quiz Which Horror Villain Do You Have the Best Chance of Surviving? Jason Voorhees · Michael Myers · Freddy Krueger · Pennywise · Chucky Five killers. Five completely different ways to die — if you're not smart enough, fast enough, or self-aware enough to avoid it. Only one of them is the villain your particular set of instincts gives you a fighting chance against. Eight questions will figure out which one. 🏕️Jason 🔪Michael 💤Freddy 🎈Pennywise 🪆Chucky TEST YOUR SURVIVAL → 01 Something feels wrong. You can't explain it — you just know. What do you do? First instincts are the difference between the survivor and the first act casualty. ALeave immediately. I don't need to understand a threat to respect it. BStay quiet and observe. If I can see it, I can understand it. If I can understand it, I can avoid it. CStay awake. Whatever this is, I am not going to sleep until I feel safe again. DConfront it directly. Fear grows in the dark — I'd rather know what I'm dealing with. ECheck everything, trust nothing. The threat might be closer than I think — and smaller. NEXT QUESTION → 02 Where are you most likely to find yourself when things go wrong? Setting is everything in horror. Where you are determines which rules apply. ASomewhere remote — a cabin, a campsite, off the grid and away from people. BA quiet suburban neighbourhood where nothing ever happens. Except tonight. CIn my own head — the most dangerous place of all, depending on what's already in there. DWherever children are — because something about this place attracts the worst things. ESomewhere ordinary — a house, a toy store, a place where the last thing you'd expect is a threat. NEXT QUESTION → 03 What is your most reliable survival asset? Every survivor has a quality the villain didn't account for. What's yours? APhysical fitness — I can run, I can swim, I can outlast something that relies on brute persistence. BSpatial awareness — I always know the exits, the hiding spots, the fastest route out. CPsychological resilience — I've faced my worst fears before. They don't have the same power over me. DEmotional steadiness — I don't panic. Panic is what gets you caught. EScepticism — I don't underestimate threats because of how they look. Size is irrelevant. NEXT QUESTION → 04 What kind of fear is hardest for you to fight through? Knowing your weakness is the first step to not dying because of it. AThe unstoppable — something that will not stop, cannot be reasoned with, and is always getting closer. BThe invisible — a threat I can feel but can't locate, watching from somewhere I can't see. CThe psychological — something that uses my own mind and memories against me. DThe unknowable — something ancient, shapeless, that feeds on the fear itself. EThe mundane — a threat so ordinary-looking that no one will believe me until it's too late. NEXT QUESTION → 05 You're with a group when things start going wrong. What's your role? Horror movies are brutally clear about who survives group situations and who doesn't. AThe one who says "we need to leave" first — and means it, even when no one listens. BThe one who stays quiet, watches the others, and figures out the pattern before anyone else does. CThe one who holds the group together when panic sets in — because someone has to. DThe one who asks the questions nobody wants to ask — because ignoring them gets people killed. EThe one who takes the threat seriously when everyone else is laughing it off. NEXT QUESTION → 06 What's the horror movie mistake you're most likely to make? Honest self-assessment is a survival skill. Denial is not. AGoing back for someone — I know I shouldn't, but I can't leave them behind. BAssuming I'm safe once I've found a hiding spot. That's when it finds me. CFalling asleep when I absolutely cannot afford to. Exhaustion is its own enemy. DLetting my curiosity override my instincts — I always need to understand what I'm dealing with. EDismissing the threat because of how it looks. That's exactly what it wants. NEXT QUESTION → 07 What's your best weapon against something that can't be stopped by conventional means? Every horror villain has a weakness. The survivors are always the ones who find it. AThe environment itself — I use the terrain, the water, the geography against it. BPatience — I wait, I watch, and I strike at the one moment it doesn't expect. CLucidity — if I can stay in control of my own mind, it loses its primary weapon. DCourage — facing it directly, refusing to run, taking away the fear it feeds on. EImprovisation — I use whatever's at hand, however unconventional. Creativity over brute force. NEXT QUESTION → 08 It's the final scene. You're the last one standing. How did you make it? The final survivor always has a reason. What's yours? AI kept moving. I never stopped, never hid for too long, never let it corner me. BI figured out the pattern before anyone else did — and I used it against the thing following it. CI stayed awake, stayed lucid, and refused to give it the one thing it needed most. DI stopped being afraid of it. And the moment I did, everything changed. EI took it seriously from the start — and I never once made the mistake of underestimating it. REVEAL MY VILLAIN → Your Survival Odds Have Been Calculated Your Best Chance Is Against…Your instincts, your strengths, and your particular way of thinking under pressure point to one villain you actually have a fighting chance against. Everyone else — good luck. Jason VoorheesJason is relentless, but he is also predictable — and that is the gap you would exploit. He moves in straight lines toward his target. He doesn't strategise, doesn't adapt, doesn't outsmart. He simply pursues. Your ability to keep moving, use the environment, and resist the panic that freezes most victims gives you a genuine edge. The Crystal Lake survivors were always the ones who stopped running in circles and started thinking about terrain, water, and distance. You think like that. Which means Jason, for all his indestructibility, would face someone who simply refused to be where he expected. Michael MyersMichael watches before he moves. He is patient, methodical, and almost impossible to detect — until it's too late for anyone who isn't paying close enough attention. But you are paying attention. You notice the shape in the window, the car parked slightly wrong, the silence where there should be sound. Michael's power lies in the invisibility of ordinary suburbia — the fact that nothing ever looks wrong until it already is. Your spatial awareness and instinct to map every room, every exit, and every shadow before you need them is precisely the quality Laurie Strode had. You are not a victim waiting to happen. You are someone who already suspects something is wrong — and acts on it. Freddy KruegerFreddy wins by getting inside your head — using your own fears, your own memories, your own subconscious as weapons against you. That strategy requires a target who can be destabilised. You are harder to destabilise than most. You've faced uncomfortable truths about yourself and you haven't looked away. The survivors on Elm Street were always the ones who understood what was happening and chose to face it rather than flee from it. Freddy's greatest weakness is that his power evaporates in the presence of someone who refuses to give him the fear he feeds on. Your psychological resilience — the ability to stay grounded when reality itself becomes unreliable — is exactly the quality that keeps you alive here. PennywisePennywise is ancient, shapeshifting, and feeds on terror — but it has one critical vulnerability: it cannot function against someone who genuinely stops being afraid of it. The Losers Club didn't survive because they were braver than everyone else. They survived because they faced their fears together, and faced them honestly. You ask the questions others avoid. You look directly at what frightens you rather than turning away. That directness — the refusal to let fear fester in the dark — is Pennywise's worst nightmare. It chose the wrong target when it chose you. You are exactly the kind of person whose fear tastes like nothing at all. ChuckyChucky's greatest advantage is that nobody takes him seriously until it's already too late. He exploits the gap between how something looks and what it actually is. You don't have that gap. You take threats seriously regardless of how they present — and you never make the mistake of underestimating something because of its size or appearance. Chucky relies on surprise, on the delay between recognition and response. You close that delay faster than almost anyone. Your instinct to treat every unfamiliar thing with appropriate scepticism — rather than dismissing it because it seems absurd — is the exact quality that keeps you breathing. Against Chucky, not laughing is already winning. You are very good at not laughing. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ 4 'Nashville' (2012-'18) Image via ABC Created by Oscar-winning Thelma & Louise scribe Callie Khouri and running for 124 episodes across two different networks, this musical drama series starred Connie Britton and Panettiere as a fading country music veteran and a rising star, respectively. The fanbase for Nashville was so committed that following ABC's cancellation after season four, the series ran for two more chapters on CMT. The show surely peaked in its first season that it could never quite match, but it remained a great showcase for two powerhouse actresses with versatile, well-rounded talents. Britton departed the show during season five, but Panettiere held on through the 2018 finale. 3 'Heroes' (2006-2010) "Save the cheerleader. Save the world." Panettiere beat out none other than a young Emma Stone for one of her most iconic roles, playing cheerleader Claire Bennett, a high schooler with powers of regeneration. Creator Tim Kring designed Heroes to feature a rolling cast of characters, but Panettiere and the other ensemble players proved so popular that NBC demanded they be brought back beyond the first run. While the first season of Heroes is remembered very fondly by fans and critics thanks to its strong characters, and perhaps especially a terrifying villainous turn from Zachary Quinto, the series unfortunately, by all accounts, fell off a cliff over time. Panettiere, and most original cast members were unceremoniously written out of the 2015 miniseries Heroes Reborn, which pretty much everyone hated and ultimately failed hard. 2 'Remember the Titans' (2000) One year before his landmark, Oscar-winning villainous turn in the R-rated crime movie Training Day, Denzel Washington brought no less effort or presence to a far softer film, Disney's live-action telling of a real-life Virginia high school football team's perfect season amidst the tensions of integration. Remember the Titans follows sports movie tropes to a science, but if you're willing to accept that and go along for the ride, this is truly one of the best and most effective films of its kind. Panettiere gets a great deal of screen time as real-life Sheryl Yoast, daughter of Will Patton's Coach Bill Yoast. The young girl is essentially the football team's unofficial mascot, a plucky hype machine. On top of being a fine film whose artistry and performances elevate it to more than delivering on the expectations of a feel-food sports picture, this is a really important marker for Panettiere. At only about nine years old during production, the actress completely holds her own amongst the older actors—most notably a fresh-faced, already hilarious Ryan Gosling and, you know, Denzel Washington, arguably the greatest film actor of the past half-century or so. This is perhaps the role where Panettiere's raw talent is most undeniable. 1 'Scream 4' (2011) Wes Craven's Scream 4 is a masterpiece. It's annoying when people overuse that word, but here it applies. As previously mentioned, this is inarguably the black sheep of the series, but it's also easily the only one with a bite that matches that of the landmark original. Kevin Williamson's script predicted all kinds of things about internet and influencer culture that was merely on the rise back then, way more than the film gets credit for. The most brutal entry in the franchise, is the first Scream movie since the first where the violence is really felt and disturbing—which is the way it always should have been. These are satirical movies about teenagers being killed. This is a series that has really always belonged to the female characters, but this is perhaps more apparent in this entry than any other. Neve Campbell is terrific as always here as survivor Sidney Prescott (she never misses, she was even good in the overall awful Scream 7). Emma Roberts is a complete scene stealer as (spoiler alert) the series' single greatest Ghostface, and then there's Panettiere as Kirby. This is a perfect utilization of the actress's specific talents and natural appeal. An oft-referenced scene near the end where Kirby frantically names pretty much every horror remake of the 2000s-era glut is one of the franchise's very best moments. It's funny and distressing, and that pretty much perfectly encapsulates what's made this series endure. The death of Panettiere is the kind of tragedy you struggle to find words for, maybe there aren't any. Though it's hardly any real comfort in the face of such devastation, it's important to note that Scream 4, her best movie, has aged like fine wine, and will continue to age beautifully. Scream 4 Release Date April 15, 2011 Runtime 111 minutes