Halloween Ends indeed marked the finale of Blumhouse’s trilogy of Halloween reboot films, and there’s no chance of a Michael Myers-like resurrection with a fourth movie at the studio.
Blumhouse CEO Jason Blum confirmed the studio has lost the rights to Halloween, explaining in a new interview with Variety that Halloween Ends marked the expiration of their ownership:
We don’t own the rights anymore. I had a three-picture deal. But I would do another Halloween movie.
According to previous reports, Halloween rights reverted to producer Malek Akkad after the third Blumhouse movie released in 2022, but the studio had a chance to re-acquire TV rights when they were placed on the market. Miramax swooped in and acquired those rights, outbidding both Blumhouse and A24.
Miramax has since announced a Halloween TV series that will serve as a complete reset, confirming that the events of Blumhouse’s trilogy will not factor into the new show. The series’ future is somewhat cloudy now, however, after the June exit from Miramax of Marc Helwig, the executive in charge of TV.
Anyone seeking to disperse the fog around the franchise’s future should avoid asking Halloween creator John Carpenter. When made aware of the planned Miramax show during a 2023 NYCC panel attended by ScreenRant, he indicated that he had no knowledge of it, but in typical sarcastic Carpenter fashion said, “See if you can get me a job on it.”
Carpenter directed the original Halloween way back in 1978, but was less involved in the movies that followed, serving as a writer on Halloween II and a composer on Halloween III before backing entirely away from the franchise he started.
Carpenter did not re-ignite his involvement with Halloween until Blumhouse’s trilogy, when he agreed to handle scoring duties, and was credited as an executive producer. There have been 13 Halloween movies overall, but the Blumhouse trilogy recognized only Carpenter’s original as a progenitor, ignoring the events of all the other franchise films, including the ones that starred Jamie Lee Curtis.
Universal was the franchise’s first studio home, after the original film was produced independently. Iconic horror villain Michael Myers later lumbered away from Universal, eventually landing with aforementioned producer Akkad, who handed creative reins to Rob Zombie for two films.
Nine years after Zombie’s divisive Halloween II, David Gordon Green took on directorial duties for the first Blumhouse-era reboot, a co-production with Akkad and Miramax. The simply-named Halloween sent a new spark of life through the moribund franchise, going on to gross $259 million worldwide.
The reboot trilogy overall grossed $497 million worldwide, but there will be no continuation of the timeline launched by Halloween 2018, as new creatives will take over stewardship of the long-running slasher franchise.
Halloween
- Created by
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John Carpenter, Debra Hill
- First Film
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Halloween
- Latest Film
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Halloween Ends
- Cast
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Jamie Lee Curtis, Nick Castle, James Jude Courtney, Donald Pleasence, Brian Andrews, Anthony Michael Hall, Kyle Richards, Nancy Stephens, Charles Cyphers, Andi Matichak, Judy Greer
- Movie(s)
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Halloween, Halloween II, Halloween III: Season of the Witch, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers, Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, Halloween: Resurrection, Rob Zombie’s Halloween II, Rob Zombie’s Halloween, Halloween, Halloween Kills, Halloween Ends
- Character(s)
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Michael Myers, Laurie Strode, Dr. Samuel Loomis, Jamie Lloyd, Sheriff Leigh Brackett, Karen Nelson, Allyson Nelson, Tommy Doyle
The Halloween franchise, created by John Carpenter and Debra Hill, is one of the longest-running horror franchises in cinema. Debuting with Halloween (1978), it introduced audiences to Michael Myers, a masked killer terrorizing the fictional town of Haddonfield on Halloween night. Spanning over 13 films, including sequels, remakes, and reboots, the franchise centers around Michael’s relentless pursuit of his original target, Laurie Strode. Halloween has become a cultural staple, inspiring the slasher genre and generating comics, novels, and video games, with a new television series currently in development.
