Often times it feels like classic horror franchises are in a perpetual state of being rebooted and expanding with sequels, often at the same time. Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre have all been given such treatment. Halloween is another that continues to be reinvented, and the director of the next chapter in the saga of Michael Myers, Halloween Returns, has one actress at the top of his wishlist: Community star Gillian Jacobs.
Talking to Halloween Daily News, director Marcus Dunstan, who helmed The Collector and its sequel, The Collection, revealed that Jacobs is his first choice to star in Halloween Returns. Expounding on his reasons, he said:
I really like this actress Gillian Jacobs. She’s known for all this comedy on ‘Community,’ and yet I didn’t know her from ‘Community’ first, I knew her from a movie called ‘Gardens of the Night,’ which is one of the most wrenching dramas, and she’s excellent. I thought, ‘I wonder if this great performer would do that again, would like to go there,’ and I think so.
While it sounds like maybe some discussions have been had about Jacobs potentially starring in Halloween Returns, it doesn’t appear that there is a deal in place just yet, so make sure to take this with a grain of salt.
Though she’s been working consistently for a number of years, her role as hapless social crusader Britta Perry on the embattled sitcom Community really raised Gillian Jacobs’ profile. While most of her roles have been comedic in nature, she’s done drama, as Dunstan notes, as well as couple horror-leaning joints, like The Box and Bad Milo.
If you were wondering how Halloween Returns fits into the franchise, it is reportedly a direct descendent of John Carpenter’s 1981 Halloween 2, and as it is connected to the original franchise, it has no ties to Rob Zombie’s Halloween films. It also plans to ignore later sequels in the original timeline. So it’s kind of a sequel, kind of a reboot, kind of a recallibration.
In this newly forged timeline, Deputy Gary Hunt, played by Hunter von Leer in Halloween 2, is now the sheriff of Haddonfield, Illinois, and still as obsessed with Michael Myers as ever. He has an 18-year-old daughter, and, along with the 18-year-old child of one of the killer’s victims, the two kids sneak in to watch Myers’ execution. Things, of course, don’t go well, and he escapes to once again stalk the streets of the small Midwestern town.
Given this description, it remains to be seen how Jacobs might fit into this role. She’s not old by any stretch of the imagination, but she’s not 18. Then again, the original film was set in 1981, a year before Jacobs was born, so perhaps the age of the characters could, or has been, adjusted in the script. We’ll have to wait and see how this all plays out when watch Halloween Returns for ourselves.
