Halloween fans were wonderfully surprised that, after months of speculation, we were getting not one but two Halloween sequels that would be shot back-to-back and released in 2020 & 2021 respectively. Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, and Andi Matichak are returning as the Strode trio and David Gordon Green, Danny McBride & John Carpenter are back behind the scenes. While it did seem like a decision driven by the very successful box office run of Halloween 2018, it turns out that the idea for three films came about while they David Gordon Green and Danny McBride were making the 2018 film.
Danny McBride, who co-wrote the 2018 film, revealed in an interview with “Collider” that the idea of three films was something they were talking about when they made their first Halloween film:
“That was our plan. Relaunching it for just one, we wanted it to have a bigger story. We were originally going to even shoot them back to back, but as soon as we got it up and running, we took a look at ourselves and were like, ‘You know what? We should make sure we can do one of them good, before we bite off trying to do three of them.’ So, we just put all of our efforts into trying to make the first one land. There was talk, right away, of us doing more of these. We just needed to get everybody aligned and see if everybody was down with the vision. Luckily, everyone is.”
David Gordon Green, who directed the 2018 film, added to McBride’s statement:
“We had ambitions of doing two, with some big ideas, and then decided that we should see if anybody liked one at a time, and if they liked the other one, then maybe we’d build on it. And then, when that was successful, our additional ideas that weren’t integrated into that first one developed into two. We’ve written them, and we’re ready to go.”
As for if Halloween Ends will really be the end, McBride and Green offer up two answers:
McBride: “I think, ultimately, Michael Myers is such an iconic character that no one besides Carpenter is ever gonna have ownership over him. This will be our chance at the table to play with these characters, and I’m sure that, when we’re done, other people will come in and do the same thing, or have their own reinvention. Michael Myers is iconic enough to allow that, too. He’s like James Bond, where you can have different actors and different filmmakers. He represents something so simple and scary that he can be translated by lots of different people.”
Green: “They’re never done telling the Frankenstein story, and at this point, Michael Myers is a classic movie monster. But our Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode/Michael Myers saga will be done. The fun of it is also seeing it end and knowing that it can. If you just keep trying to elongate it and milk it for all of the money, then that’s boring.”
