'Halloween Ends' Won't Be The Final 'Halloween,' Says Writer Danny McBride [Exclusive]
Universal revealed plans for two more Halloween sequels last week. Halloween Kills will pick up where the 2018 sequel left off. Halloween Ends promises (threatens?) to end the series once and for all. That will be the 11th sequel, and if you include the Rob Zombie remake and its sequel, there will be 13 movies total. Even Friday the 13th hasn't made it to 13. Writer Danny McBride and writer/director David Gordon Green were at WarnerMedia's Television Critics Association party for their new HBO show The Righteous Gemstones. /Film spoke to them about whether Halloween Kills would really be the end, their plan for the trilog,y and new kills.
Of Course Halloween Won’t End
Seriously, no horror franchise that declared a final chapter ever actually ended. Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare wasn't the last one. Saw 3D/Saw: The Final Chapter was not the last one. Friday the 13th even has two final chapters, neither of which were the last one. There has not yet been a followup to The Last Sharknado but give it time. McBride agrees."I think no way and I wouldn't want it [to end]," McBride said. "I feel like Michael Myers is such an iconic horror character, there's a simplicity to why he's scary that I think it will always be relevant for generations to come. I think we're lucky enough to have a shot at it right now. I'm sure 10 years from now there'll be another group of knuckleheads that think they have the answer to what they should do with Michael Myers next."The only thing that will end in Halloween Kills is Green's tenure directing Halloween movies. "It'll be my last one," Green said.
They Always Had a Plan For Three
There were rumors that Green would film two Halloween movies back-to-back. McBride reveals they were originally going to go for three films."When we first were signed up for it, we were going to originally try to do three movies back-to-back," McBride said. "Ultimately, we were kind of all like let's make sure we can do this one good. Then when we connected with people, we all decided let's try to continue what we were going to do."Green teased the arc of the trilogy. "It's just a continuing story that's got a beginning, middle and end. I'm excited to begin it," Green said. "The middle is chaos and the ending is very satisfying."Doing the sequels one at a time was the right call. Whenever sequels film back-to-back, the individual movies suffer. The Matrix Reloaded/Revolutions, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest/At Worlds End and even my beloved Back to the Future Part II/III each could have been stronger movies with more focus (and real endings for the middle parts). Only the Lord of the Rings trilogy pulled it off.
Don’t Bother With Halloween Continuity
For those keeping track. Halloween 2018 skips every Halloween from Halloween II to Halloween: Resurrection. So this quadrilogy would technically go Halloween 1978, Halloween 2018, Halloween Kills, Halloween Ends. "It's very confusing," McBride laughed. "It's just a convoluted way to make everyone have to watch all of them and figure it out."
Jamie Lee Curtis Was an Easy Sell
Speaking of declarations that are never final, Jamie Lee Curtis has retired from the Halloween franchise twice, first after Halloween II and then after Halloween Resurrection. McBride said selling her on Kills and Ends wasn't difficult."She was into it," McBride said. "She believes in us so we pitched her the movies and she was down for more."Curtis's support of the franchise is really heartwarming. Halloween: H2O was actually her idea, and even after that she agreed to do a cameo in Resurrection. McBride and Greens movies give her a really great role, but she doesn't need to do them if she doesn't want to. Loyalty can be rare in Hollywood and it makes me like the Laurie Strode stories even more.
They’re Working on New Kills
If they were planning three films back to back, they must have had plenty of kills for them. They didn't get that far, McBride said. So they're developing all-new kills, but they're inspired by what they accomplished in Halloween 2018."I think from watching the first one, we've expanded what sort of other kills we want to see," McBride said. Halloween Kills is in theaters October 16, 2020. Halloween Ends is in theaters October 15, 2021.