Nightmare Before Christmas’ Danny Elfman Explains Why Sequel Likely Won’t Ever Happen

When it comes to holidays, Halloween and Christmas reign supreme when it comes to storytelling. The Nightmare Before Christmas spans both holidays, having become a cult classic that people can watch throughout the entirety of the holiday season. That’s one of the reasons why someone like Danny Elfman — the composer behind the flick and the singing voice of its lead Jack Skellington — doesn’t think fans will ever see a proper sequel. It’s completeness is hard to continue.

That, and the fact Tim Burton seemingly doesn’t want anything to do with it. Speaking with us in support of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Elfman says he doesn’t feel like a true sequel in the form of a movie or Disney+ series will ever happen.

“I don’t think so,” Elfman tells ComicBook.com about a Nightmare follow-up. “I think Tim has always felt that no, this is what it was.”

That said, the musician says Hollywood is rarely predictable, and a sequel could happen if someone gets an idea someday down the line. Best yet, Elfman said he’d leap at the opportunity to return to the Nightmare world.

“But you know, it wouldn’t totally shock me if he came back with… If he had a fresh take on it, I would certainly go for the ride with him,” the composer continues. “But he’s never expressed any interest in that. I think he felt like this was a pure thing and it was what it was and that to try to do sequels on it would, I think it’s just not inspired him. But I won’t ever speak for Tim. It’s his universe.”

The comments echo those Elfman previously made during a profile on the flick. Despite it being on the scarier side, the composer said Disney quickly recognized its importance to families.

“When it came out, I did a two-day press junket and virtually every interview started with: ‘Too scary for kids, right?’,” Elfman, who composed the music and provided the singing voice of Jack Skellington, recalled to Variety. “I think that’s why Disney was like, ‘What do we do with this thing? We’re a family film company.’ So to come back years later and to see families out there, and to be getting recordings of people’s kids who are 4 years old singing ‘What’s This’ or ‘This is Halloween,’ makes me really feel blessed. It’s like a second life and proving them wrong.”

He continued, “And to Disney’s credit, after a decade or 15 years, they recognized that there was still this following, and they started putting energy back into it. This time they understood what it was. And not many companies would have done that — pick up a decade-old film and put energy into it. I consider the persistence of Nightmare Before Christmas to be one of my real pleasures in life.”

Nightmare Before Christmas is now streaming on Disney+.