Following the divisive response to David Gordon Green’s legacy trilogy, franchise veteran Danielle Harris shares how Halloween‘s future can still thrive. While Green’s 2018 direct sequel was a hit, both Halloween Kills and Ends saw mixed-to-negative reviews from critics and diminishing returns at the box office. The latter was initially set to serve as the conclusion of the slasher franchise, properly killing Michael Myers for good, though Miramax acquired the rights with reported plans for a TV show and new cinematic universe.
During a recent interview with Screen Rant for the psychological thriller Dark Obsession, on which she’s both a star and producer, Danielle Harris shared her thoughts on the future of the Halloween franchise. The Jamie Lloyd and Annie Brackett actor felt that the only way for the franchise to succeed following the divisive response to Green’s legacy trilogy is to give complete creative control to whichever filmmaker is at the helm for future installments, recalling that was part of what made the movies she was involved in work. Check out what Harris explained below:
I think they did a great job with what they had for sure. It’s hard, studios are hard, there’s a lot of players, a lot of rules. I learned that from the difference between Halloween 4 and 5 versus working on Rob Zombie’s Halloween. Four and 5 was 100% creative in producers and director [control], they were all team players, where you have, now, the studio involved, and you’ve got other forces at play that make decisions based on things outside of the art and the story. I’m hoping that maybe we get to go back to the way that it used to be, because it’d be lovely to get back into Halloween as Jamie and have it not be a studio feel. Have it be kind of how it was in the ’80s.
Wouldn’t that be great? That’s what the fans want. The studios are churning out movies that the fans are not wanting to see, where if they just kept it simple, and let us do what we know — I think they’re marketing to the wrong people. It’s like when they brought Laurie’s daughter — I’m totally blanking on her name right now — that actress, she’s fantastic. As an actress, I’m a huge fan of hers, but she’s not Laurie’s daughter. But I get, marketing wise, she’s a big movie star and incredibly talented, and it’s all this draw, but if you just keep it simple, and keep it the way fans want to see, I think they’ll be more even more successful than they already could be.
Every Potential Path For The Halloween Franchise
In the 45 years since it launched, the Halloween franchise has taken a wide variety of directions with its narrative. The first sequel kept the story focused on Michael and Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode, while the threequel returned to the anthological approach John Carpenter initially envisioned. Season of the Witch‘s lackluster reception led to a return to Michael-fronted sequels, bringing in Harris’ Jamie for three of them, as well as a legacy sequel with Laurie, whose follow-up killed the heroine off. After years of going dormant, Rob Zombie took a remake approach to the Halloween property before Green took his legacy sequel approach.
With Miramax reportedly looking to develop both a cinematic universe and TV show for Halloween‘s future, there are a number of routes the franchise can go with its future. Harris herself has shared her hopes to reprise her role of Jamie, particularly after she was absent from the recent trilogy of movies, which she explained to Screen Rant stemmed from wanting to hold out for a story centered on her character, even comparing a possible story to that of the recent Chucky show. Harris went on to say:
One of the more inevitable routes the Halloween franchise will take is a retconning of Michael’s death in Ends, though this likely would again be a continuation of the original movie rather than Green’s trilogy, given Blumhouse holds the rights to the characters created within it. Talks have always swirled about a potential prequel exploring Michael’s younger years locked up in the psychiatric asylum, though this risks taking away the ambiguity of his nature. Though it may lose the marketing appeal of having Michael at the center, the better paths do seem to be a return to Carpenter’s anthology plan, or Harris’ Jamie getting her own Halloween 2018 treatment.
Halloween
- Created by
- John Carpenter , Debra Hill
- First Film
- Halloween (1978)
- Cast
- 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
