Halloween Ends Producer Hints Franchise Could Explore Areas Outside of Michael Myers Going Forward
The masked murderer Michael Myers is intrinsically linked with the Halloween franchise, as he serves as the villain in all but one installment in the series, but a well-known fact about the series is that co-creator John Carpenter never wanted to make a series focusing on the character, only begrudgingly agreeing to co-write 1981's Halloween II after knowing that the studio would move forward on it regardless of his involvement. Halloween III: Season of the Witch pivoted away from Myers entirely to tell a standalone story about a villainous mask maker, resulting in confusion from audiences who expected to see another Myers story. With the current trilogy of films from director David Gordon Green set to conclude with Halloween Ends, producer on the trilogy Ryan Freimann recently teased that films following Ends might be exploring concepts that don't connect with Myers.
"I think there are other ways and other mediums in which to explore this franchise," Freimann confirmed with ComicBook.com. "I wouldn't necessarily say ... I mean, there's always interest in exploring Season of the Witch again. Is it something we'd race to do? I don't know. Our focus has been COVID delays, figuring out how to do Halloween Ends and shoot it, COVID protocols on that, all of those things, coming out of that. That's been our focus ... But I think it would be something, where we explore other, outside areas of the Halloween universe."
He added, "I think after this many films, too, we have to look other places, just to get a little more creative, right?"
Over more than 40 years, the Halloween franchise has presented audiences with one of the more complex and confusing narratives. While Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers brought back the character and earned two sequels to continue that timeline, 1998's Halloween H20 brought back Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode and negated the events of the previous three films. Filmmaker Rob Zombie also crafted two films for a reboot universe, which didn't connect to the rest of the franchise in any narrative capacity.
The current films have brought back Curtis as Laurie, serving as a direct continuation of just the 1978 film and ignoring all sequels, and it also brings back Carpenter himself as a producer. Understandably, the popularity of the franchise means it's not going away anytime soon, but given the repetitive nature of other sequels, clearly Freimann understands it will be hard to merely reprise Michael Myers stories following his confrontations with Laurie in Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends.
Halloween Kills hits theaters and Peacock on October 15th and Halloween Ends is slated to debut on October 14, 2022. You can head to the CineLife Entertainment website to find screenings of Halloween, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, and Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers near you.
Would you like a Halloween sequel without Michael Myers? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!