We’re living in an age where many fan-favorite horror movies are coming back around for remakes and sequels more than ever. Interestingly enough, John Carpenter, who has directed and composed the scores for many classics from the genre, gets to experience this revival and be part of it. Now the 74-year-old icon is sharing that he's game for a sequel to be made for one of the best movies on his resume.
John Carpenter is coming off seeing the Halloween movies come back with Jamie Lee Curtis returning as Laurie Strode. Ahead of the trilogy concluding with Halloween Ends later this year, Carpenter shared which of his films he’d like to see continue on screen, saying:
I would like to do a sequel to The Thing, or a continuation, something like that. But I don’t know. See? There are a lot of things in this world I don’t know.
John Carpenter directed The Thing in 1982, and to this day it's regarded as one of the best horror movies of all time. The movie starring Kurt Russell is about a research team in Antartica that becomes hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the look of its victims. The movie that has a ton of interesting behind-the-scenes stories to go with it is still considered by many to be Carpenter's most defining work as a director. Could it be the latest horror flick to get a sequel?
While John Carpenter wasn’t definitive on making the sequel to THR, the interest is certainly there. He hasn’t directed in some time, but he’s an active producer, so I could see him enlisting another filmmaker to take the reins unless he decides to get back into the swing of things.
Back in 2020, it was actually reported that Blumhouse was working on a reboot for The Thing. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case for the time being considering two years have passed without additional news about it. Back in 2011, a prequel for The Thing sharing the same title was made and starred Elizabeth Mary Winstead, Joel Edgerton and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, but it was met with negative reception overall. It would be interesting for The Thing to be explored as a sequel instead, perhaps with Kurt Russell back in action somehow?
While speaking with Fandom, John Carpenter got more in depth about why he’d like to see The Thing back on screen.
I just think there’s another bit of a story to tell there, which I’m not going to tell you about. But there have been some discussions about The Thing and what we could do because, as far as we know, both those two main characters – Childs [Keith David] and MacReady [Kurt Russell] — are still alive. They were alive at the end of The Thing, so maybe they’re still alive.
Now that’d be exciting. Kurt Russell has most certainly not been a stranger to movies as of late ,with roles in F9, The Christmas Chronicles movies and Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood. While we imagine what The Thing sequel could be, check out what upcoming horror movies are on the way.
