With the release of Halloween Ends recently, the franchise has, well, ended – at least for now. Director David Gordon Green definitively concluded his trilogy and, moreover, the saga of Michael Myers and Laurie Strode. The movie has an ending that certainly warrants much discussion (a discussion for another time, perhaps), but Green has revealed that he had another idea, one that would have connected his finale to the fan-favorite Halloween III: Season of the Witch.
[Warning: this article contains spoilers for Halloween Ends]
In a recent interview with MovieMaker.com, Green discussed his idea for the conclusion of Halloween Ends that would have brought things around to the 1982 entry in the franchise that, rather famously, did not include Michael Myers in it. If Green had filmed the ending in question, we would have seen the return of the Silver Shamrock factory with a pretty heady twist.
“There was an ending I wrote, that we never filmed, and it takes place at Silver Shamrock factory as it was spitting out witch, skeleton, and jack-o-lantern masks… and then it started spitting out Michael Myers masks. I had a temptation to go there, but at the end of the day, I thought that’s just fan service for people who know what Silver Shamrock is. It was in every draft of the script ever published [laughs], but we never filmed it.”
Indeed, Season of the Witch has gained a cult following since its original release, but it’s still not nearly as mainstream as these recent Halloween movies. 2018’s Halloween is the highest-grossing slasher film in history, it’s worth noting. So, to tie Halloween Ends directly to Halloween III would have been a pretty big swing, and, quite frankly, this movie as it exists is already one big swing in an unexpected direction.
So, would it have been that the final confrontation between Michael’s protégé Corey and Laurie Strode would have taken place at the Silver Shamrock factory? We honestly have way more questions than answers. Not to mention that this would have tied the continuity of Season of the Witch to the new trilogy, which would raise a ton of head-spinning canon questions. In the end, Green felt it was best to leave that legacy alone, hoping that someone else might do something with it later.
“I love Halloween III, and I think it could be a vehicle someone can crack and reinvent. One serious conversation I had with our producer Malek Akkad was, do I really want to just throw a gag in my movie that’s gonna f— up what someone could seriously do with that title? It’s a cool movie, so I thought my nods would be the blue titles in the intro for those insightful enough to catch it.”
That logic is pretty sound. The fact of the matter is, Michael Myers is retired for some time, if not for good after his most recent outing. One way to keep the franchise alive would be to reconsider John Carpenter and Debra Hill’s idea from ‘82 and turn it into an anthology series with new tales to tell. Or hey, maybe someone just makes a Season of the Witch sequel. Either way, it was probably for the best that Green didn’t go this route, even if it would have made for interesting conversation fodder.
Halloween Ends is in theaters and on Peacock now.
