Michael Myers Looms Large in Latest ‘Halloween’ Photo

Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Productions have debuted the latest look at a returned Michael Myers in Halloween (courtesy EW).

A 40-years-later sequel to the original 1978 Halloween, ignoring its nine subsequent franchise installments, the David Gordon Green-directed follow-up finds the elusive Shape (Nick Castle and James Jude Courtney) as a four-decade prisoner of a sanitarium.

Come Halloween time, the silent masked murderer is scheduled to be transferred to a maximum-security prison when “sh-t hits the fan in one way or another,” Green told EW.

“What I loved is that it surgically excises all of that dead tissue,” said returning scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis, back for another go at the boogeyman. “This is growing from just that original movie, 40 years later. There may be people who love the other movies, great — [they have] zero relevance to this story.”

Despite doing away with decades of history and multiple continuities, Green’s Halloween will pay tribute to past sequels by way of “very subtle shout-outs to a number of things that I think the big fans — the people that know the films scientifically — will get a kick out of, hopefully,” he said.

For its aged Michael Myers — Michael here is 61-years-old — original Halloween actor Nick Castle was recruited alongside actor and stuntman James Jude Courtney, pulling double duty in a shared role.

“He’s a bad motherf—, man,” Courtney told Halloween Movies, explaining four decades of time haven’t slowed the ruthless killer.

“He’s a bad dude. I’ve got to tell you, even old fighters don’t lose their punches. I got in the ring with Joe Brown on the set of Far and Away, who was Rocky Marciano’s sparring partner for seven of his eight title fights, and he said, ‘C’mon Jim, you can throw better than that,’ and I threw hard at him, man. And that old man’s [punches] kicked like a mule, and that’s when he sat me down and said, ‘A fighter never loses his punch.’ I think it’s the same with Myers. He’s not going to lose his strength, his virility, his power and his focus. He’s taking the hits.”

Added Castle, “In that he can take a lot of punishment, they keep it pretty real. I have seen some of the sequels where they suggested other-worldly reasons for his power, but this one does not have that.”

Curtis, Castle, and Courtney star alongside Judy Greer and Andi Matichak, who play the daughter and high school-aged granddaughter of a reclusive and gun-toting Laurie Strode.

Halloween opens October 19.