Halloween came back in a big way last year when David Gordon Green’s legacyquel starring Jamie Lee Curtis opened to $76 million and went on to gross $255 million off a $10 million budget. That kind of success usually means sequels, and now Halloween is getting two of them.

Producer and series creator John Carpenter has taken to Twitter to announce that there will be back-to-back Halloween sequels. On October 16, 2020, we’ll get Halloween Kills. On October 15, 2021, we’ll get Halloween Ends. There are no details about the saga beyond it continuing the story of Laurie Strode (Curtis) and Michael Myers, so we’ll have to see what the filmmakers have in store. Green will return to direct. Per the press release, Halloween Kills is written by David Gordon Green & Danny McBride & Scott Teems while Halloween Ends is written by David Gordon Green and Danny McBride, and Paul Brad Logan and Chris Bernier. Judy Greer and Andi Matichak are expected to return alongside Curtis.

What’s curious about these movies is how they plan to further the narrative. The big hurdle for something like Halloween is that its greatest strength and its greatest weakness is its simplicity. It hits a primal fear of the slasher—the Boogeyman waiting to kill you—but can you build a complete trilogy out of that? And doesn’t continuing the story diminish what happens in earlier movies? At the end of 2018’s Halloween, Laurie has “killed” Michael, but if he’s back, what does that mean. If someone has taken up the mantle, that’s interesting, but then there’s no personal relationship, as weak as that personal relationship may be.

It will be interesting to see how the story plays out over the next two movies, but it looks like Universal wants to take ownership of October for two years. Given the newfound popularity of the franchise, they’ll probably get it and for the relatively low price that Blumhouse provides (don’t expect to see a $100 million Halloween movie). I’m not sure the narrative can sustain two more movies (especially when the reboot was so steeped in nostalgia), but perhaps now that they’ve paid homage, they can forge a path into something new and exciting.

Here's the announcement video:

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Image via Universal Pictures / Blumhouse
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Image via Universal Pictures / Blumhouse
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Image via Universal Pictures / Blumhouse