Explanation of Why The New HALLOWEEN Film Ignores All The Sequels and Why The Familial Relationship was Removed

As we've been hearing from the very beginning, the new Halloween sequel from David Gordon Green and Danny McBride will ignore every sequel in the Halloween franchise. So the way things are now set up, it's Halloween (1978) and Halloween (2018).

I'm actually ok with this because because things started to become a mess after Halloween 2. But the movie will include throwbacks and references to the other sequels for fans who want some kind of acknowledgment of them.

When talking about why they decided to ignore all the sequels, Green explains to Comingsoon that they wanted a clean slate opportunity:

"Anyone who’s a fan of any of these films will find nice little Easter Eggs acknowledging our salute to the filmmakers that have preceded us in the stories and mythologies as they’ve unfolded. For us, it was a clean slate type of opportunity, where if there was a little inspiration or mirror image of something it’s very subtle in the movie because we want to start fresh for a new generation but with great appreciation for the previous."

The first trailer for the film was recently released, and as you saw is does a great job of capturing the sinister tone of the original movie, but 40 years later. McBride adds:

"I feel like it’s almost one of the things like Batman or something. You see these different artists take on these iconic characters so I think it’s kind of cool to see what different filmmakers will do with a property that is so well known. I would rather have that approach to Michael Myers than everyone just continuing some storyline and just trying to regurgitate these things. I think it’s more interesting to have someone like David or Rob Zombie, these filmmakers that just come and put their own stamp on it for better or worse. I think that’s a more interesting way for a franchise to stay alive than to just continue to beat the same drum over and over again."

He makes a good point here. It is more interesting to see other filmmakers put their own stamp on certain characters and properties. Hopefully, this one will be for the better and not for the worse.

One of the producers on the film is Malek Akkad, who has been around the franchise since he was a kid. His late father actually spearheaded the whole franchise, and he admits that the idea of ignoring the film that his dad previously worked on both hurts a little and is kind of a relief:

"It does and it doesn’t (hurt). First, a little bit, you’re always wondering what the fans’ reaction to that is going to be and to be honest, the franchise has taken a lot of left turns…There are so many arcs in there that you can never satisfy them all, and I think what David and Danny and Jeff (Fradley, co-writer) have done has really cracked it in a way that the fans are going to love. The fans are going to love all the homages they put in the film, there are just so many little Easter Eggs and you know, just kind of touches to the original.”

One of the big elements that was removed from the Halloween lore for this film was the whole brother and sister relationship between Michael Myers and Laurie Strode. That may upset some fans, but McBride explains why they made that decision:

"I was pushing for that removal right off the bat. I just felt like that was an area where he wasn’t quite as scary anymore, it seemed too personalized. I wasn’t as afraid of Michael Myers anymore because I’m not his fucking brother so he’s not coming after me. Also you’ve seen it, so wouldn’t it be interesting just to see what would happen if it wasn’t that, and what does that open up for us if it wasn’t this random killing that has affected this character, so it just seemed like new territory to bite off.

Green adds:

"We were trying to come up with what our take would be and really just found an original path that more or less takes the first one as our reality. (That film) kind of sets the tone for our story or history and then we jumped forty years into the future and we see how the world today responds to, was affected by, how we meet our characters in a different phase of their life under the reality of this traumatic event and have to come to terms with some of these issues horrifically, in many circumstances, how that is relayed and that’s kind of the fun of how we launch off."

I actually liked the whole brother and sister twist, and the fact they have removed that aspect of the story is interesting. It does add a whole new creepy and unsettling element to the whole thing know that they aren't related, but what is that force between them that drives them together after all these years. Revenge? Unfinished business? Or is it just the unknown that raises mystery and terror?

What do you all think about the Halloween sequel ditching the sequel and the brother and sister dynamic?

Halloween opens in theaters on October 19.