Last week, Universal Pictures and Blumhouse unveiled a first look at the new Halloween movie, but in an alternate timeline we could have had two new Halloween movies on the way. The idea for the new Halloween originated with Danny McBride, Jeff Fradley, and David Gordon Green, all of whom worked together on HBO’s Vice Principals. They pitched a take on a new, smaller-scale Halloween film at Blumhouse, and the studio moved quickly to make this a reality with Green (Stronger) directing and all three writing the screenplay.
But McBride tells EW that their initial plan was to make two Halloween films back to back:
“We were going to shoot two of them back-to-back. Then we were like, Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. This could come out, and everyone could hate us, and we’d never work again. So, let’s not have to sit around for a year while we wait for another movie to come out that we know people aren’t going to like. So, we were like, Let’s learn from this, and see what works, and what doesn’t. But we definitely have an idea of where we would go [with] this branch of the story and hopefully we get a chance to do it.”
That's a really smart plan, but it sounds like if this new Halloween film is a success, McBride and Co. already know what they’d do for a sequel. Speaking of which, this new film ignores all the Halloween sequels and is a direct follow-up to John Carpenter’s original film. It even jettisons the idea that Michael Myers and Laurie Strode are siblings, as the trailer shrugs that off as a rumor, so I'm extremely curious to see what their take on the franchise looks like beyond this new film.
For more on Halloween, definitely check out Haleigh’s extensive on-set interviews with Jamie Lee Curtis and Green & McBride below. Halloween opens in theaters on October 19th.
- 'Halloween': David Gordon Green & Danny McBride on Bringing the Franchise Back to Basics
- A Deep-Dive with Jamie Lee Curtis on ‘Halloween’ & Her Legacy as a Horror Icon
