Hey Michael Dougherty and Legendary! Where in The Hell is TRICK 'R TREAT 2!?

It's the Halloween season and what would another year of Halloween be without bringing up the long-awaited anthology horror thriller, Trick ‘r Treat 2!?

This is one of my all-time favorite horror movies and I’ve watched it every year on Halloween night since it was released on DVD/Blu-ray. The sequel to this film was officially announced a decade ago, and the movie still hasn’t been made! I was attending a special screening of the film in Hollywood when Legendary Pictures president Thomas Tull announced the sequel. Then… nothing.

Over the years, director Michael Dougherty offered updates on the film, and a year ago he said that it’s in “very active development,” but, you know, it still hasn’t happened. At one point the director said that he was going to start work on it after he was finished directing Godzilla: King of the Monsters. I have no idea what’s going on, but if the project really has been in development, maybe now the writers’ strike is over, it’ll happen.

I want a Trick 'r Treat sequel! I want to see more of these Halloween stories! Back in 2019, Dougherty said:

I feel like that's become the new Halloween tradition: ask Mike about Trick 'r Treat 2! Listen, I'm intrigued by the idea and it's completely up to Legendary. It's been a few years since we initially talked about it and there's been a regime change since then. They still have the property and they love it and there's still a long line of merchandise and a continuing line of comic books based on the film but the ball is in their court. The moment they say they're interested and ready to go, we'll see if the stars align."

So, it’s all up to Legendary, and if they really do love the property, why haven’t they moved forward with it? They’ve just got to pull the trigger! When talking about his plan for the sequel, Dougherty confirmed that none of the original cast members are coming back for it, and he explained:

"No, because I feel like that's very much American Horror Story's approach and style. I'd rather stay consistent. If I'm bringing cast members back, it would be in the same roles, not that that's currently a plan within the piece. To me, it would throw me off. I do like it in American Horror Story. I think it works for them, but it'd also feel like we're just ripping them off if we did that. If I've learned anything from this experience, it's all about patience and persistence."

Dougherty also confirmed that he doesn’t have any plans to tell the origin story of Sam, which he’s talked about in the past, and uses Freddy Kreuger as an example. He said:

"I think Freddy works, but at the same time, we never saw it [the origin], I guess. I think Freddy's origin is an exception because it only made him scarier. To know who he was, this serial killer who went around killing kids and was eventually beheaded by justice, only added to his mystery and his power. But I think a mistake they made was they kept explaining it. They kept adding more layers like, 'Oh, he also made a deal with these three dream demons.' It's one thing to create a fun, mysterious origin for a character, but I feel like a lot of studios over the years have sort of overthought it.

"They just start adding too much to the point of it being layered with all the layers. Like with the Halloween stuff [in Halloween 5 and 6] where it's like cults, and the curse, and these tattoos. I was like, 'What the fuck are you talking about?' With Sam, there are definitely aspects of his lore and his mythology that we could expand on, and I hope to in terms of how he comes back year after year, where he goes to, and things like that, but I would never do any sort of flashback to ancient Ireland and show some kid being sacrificed and throw him to a pumpkin creature. That would just ruin his mystique."

When talking about Sam's origin, he did explain that he'd love to show him being born in a pumpkin patch. "There's a great Charles Addams painting of a pumpkin patch... and you see hundreds of pumpkins, and you see one...and it's carving itself." This is such a great concept! I’d like to see that brought to life. In another one of his updates, Dougherty said:

"It’s funny because when I first dreamt up the idea of making the first film, I thought, “How neat would it be if we made them a series?” I’m a firm believer that October should be filled with Halloween movies, or horror movies. That’s something I remember from childhood. Horror movies and Halloween, they go hand-in-hand. And so the idea was, “Well we could probably do a Trick ‘r Treat movie every year or every other year, and that it would sort of just be a new batch of stories and characters. And the common link between all of them would be Sam.” Initially that was the plan, and then things changed as the first film had a very delayed, strange journey. I put those dreams on hold for a little while, so it feels good to go back to that initial plan. … I think it’d be great to make it a trilogy, at least. So fingers crossed. For me, I think every film should explore a different aspect of Halloween. I felt like the first film was the very traditional, suburban Halloween that we all have some memory of. But as I’ve grown up over the years, I’ve lived everywhere from Columbus, Ohio to New York to L.A., and I find that the holiday is very different depending on where you live. Or even time periods. I don’t see why we should be limited to just present day stories. Halloween is an amazing holiday because it evolves depending on where you live and the time period."

He added: "There’s nothing I can reveal yet. It’s still really early in the process, but I can definitely say that we’ll be exploring Sam more and maybe getting into some back story of who and what he actually is."

He went on to explain: "I think we’ll shake it up a little bit. There are different archetypes I’d like to explore, different types of monsters. We covered werewolves, vampires, and zombies, but there’s a whole slew of different creatures out there that we haven’t tackled, and I think Sam would probably be pretty good buddies with. So I think it’s time to let them have their time in the sun."

The filmmaker also said: “Yeah, there’s a long list of Halloween icons that we haven’t gotten around to yet. You know, I wanted to have a story set in a pumpkin patch, and didn’t get to do it, or cornfields. Witches, ghosts, the list goes on and on of things that are really iconic for the holiday, but we could only fit so much in the first film, so if we’re lucky enough to get a second film, maybe we can start to expand that a little bit.”

He has a plan, I know he’s got the stories, and a script for it has to exist by now! I just need this Trick ‘r Treat sequel to happen. This could be such a big horror franchise! It’s crazy that the studio still hasn’t jumped on it and pushed it forward.