Original Halloween director John Carpenter doesn’t expect the franchise, which has back-to-back sequels being prepped for release in 2020 and 2021, to ever truly end.
“As long as there’s money in this, I wouldn’t count on an ending,” Carpenter said during an appearance at Keystone Comic Con in Philadelphia (via SYFY WIRE).
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David Gordon Green, who directed last October’s Halloween — the 40-years-later sequel to Carpenter’s 1978 original — is signed on for Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends, due out from Blumhouse in October 2020 and October 2021, respectively. Ends will bring the franchise’s total number of entries to 13.
For Carpenter, returning to the franchise as both composer and executive producer was a welcome turn after past franchise installments moved forward without his involvement. Carpenter last penned a Michael Myers entry in 1981’s Halloween II before moving onto other famed horror projects like The Thing and Christine.
Before moving forward on Blumhouse’s franchise revival, Carpenter fielded a pitch from Green and co-writer Danny McBride: the filmmakers envisioned a sequel that would bring back Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode and ignore every Halloween film except the one Carpenter directed. Carpenter enthusiastically blessed the project.
“Everybody, after Halloween was a big hit, everybody said, ‘Oh, let’s do it again,’” Carpenter recently told ComicBook.com. Coming back, Carpenter added, was “easy.” Asked if Green and McBride had to pitch their two followup films, Carpenter said, “Oh, hell no. I’m aboard. I’m ready, I love the experience.”
This new iteration of the franchise ended Carpenter’s sideline criticisms of past sequels, projects where he had no involvement. “[Producer] Jason Blum came to me and said, ‘This movie is going to be made, so we’d like you, John, to come aboard as [an] executive producer and just sort of shepherd it through, and maybe do the music,’” Carpenter recently told Variety. “He challenged me, he said, ‘Why don’t you get off your lazy butt and make it good instead of sitting around complaining?’ So I said okay. It was about like that.”
Halloween Kills is set for October 16, 2020. Halloween Ends follows on October 15, 2021.
