Last fall, the Halloween franchise returned to the big screen with, well, Halloween! Serving as a sequel only to the 1978 original from John Carpenter, the latest Halloween movie was a critical and commercial success, leading to speculation about if Blumhouse Productions would deliver a sequel. Well, after months of chatter, it’s being reported that Halloween 2 is indeed on the way.
Word’s come in that Halloween 2 is gearing up to start shooting after Labor Day and Universal Pictures intends to release it on October 16, 2020, a date that Blumhouse has already reserved. Collider’s report also notes that Jamie Lee Curtis is “all but assured” to reprise Laurie Strode, and Judy Greer and Andi Matichak are also expected to return as Laurie’s daughter, Karen, and granddaughter, Allyson, respectively.
Naturally, since Michael Myers, the main antagonist of the Halloween series, doesn’t like to leave survivors, those three women would be joined by a new cast of supporting characters in Halloween 2. While she hasn’t been present in every Halloween movie, Laurie Strode is arguably the most important protagonist in this franchise, and considering where things left off with her and her family in the last Halloween, it makes sense to bring her back.
Of course, you can’t have a Halloween movie without Michael Myers, and one would imagine that James Jude Courtney will don the mask again for Halloween 2. Whether Nick Castle, Michael’s original actor, will also get to briefly play Michael again like he did in the last movie remains to be seen.
As for what’s reportedly happening behind the camera on Halloween 2, David Gordon Green, who directed last year’s Halloween and co-wrote the script with Danny McBride, will reprise those duties for the sequel. McBride is also reportedly executive produce Halloween 2 alongside Green, Jamie Lee Curtis, original Halloween mastermind John Carpenter and Blumhouse’s Couper Samuelson, and Halloween franchise “caretaker” Malek Akkad will produce with Jason Blum and Bill Block.
Given that the last Halloween movie was met with a lot of positive reception (it ranks at 79% on Rotten Tomatoes) and made over $255 million worldwide off a budget in the $10-$15 million range, it makes sense to bring back as many people who were involved with this movie for Halloween 2. As the old saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Interestingly enough, Danny McBride revealed that originally the plan was to shoot two new Halloween movies back-to-back, but he and David Gordon Green changed their minds, deciding it was better to see how the first Halloween movie performed before moving to a second one. Another obstacle that prevented green lighting Halloween 2 right away is that Blumhouse didn’t have the rights to sequels, but evidently that’s been rectified given this update.
Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more updates on how Halloween 2 is coming along, but in the meantime, you can look through our 2019 release schedule to plan your trips to the movie theater later this year accordingly.
