Is Halloween Ends the final movie in the series?

After a long gap left by the less-than-successful Rob Zombie take on the franchise, David Gordon Green resurrected the menace of The Shape in 2018 with Halloween, a direct sequel of the original 1978 horror film smash hit of the same name.

The recent Green Halloween film series is notable for two reasons. One, it features the return of Jamie Lee Curtis as series protagonist Laurie Strode. Two, the series ignores all Halloween movies after the 1978 film. That’s right folks, Halloween H20 never happened, it can’t hurt you anymore.

After the first installment in 2018, the series continued with Halloween Kills, for my money a lack-luster sequel in 2021. And now, as All Hallows Eve looms again, we’ll be Halloween Ends in October of this year. Personally, I would have gone with Halloween Dies, but hey, you do you, Green.

However, the title begs the question, will Halloween actually end? Here’s what we know.

Is Halloween Ends really the last Halloween movie?

For now, Halloween ends on October 14. All sources indicate that this Halloween series is intended to be only a trilogy, and Jamie Lee Curtis will be reprising the role of Laurie Strode just one more time. So, as things are currently, there is no reason to think that the trilogy will expand to a tetralogy.

However, much like a young baby, when money talks, people listen for more. Depending on how Halloween Ends performs at the box office, we could very well see plans for a fourth movie come about.

Now admittedly, that’s pure speculation. Who knows at this point about the future of Halloween. However, when you consider the history of the franchise, I think odds are that this will not be the last time we see Michael Myers. Perhaps David Gordon Green won’t be involved. Perhaps Jamie Lee Curtis won’t play Laurie Strode. But let’s be honest, the last Halloween movie?

Not counting the up-coming Halloween Ends, the Halloween franchise has a total of 12 films to its name. (Yes, I’m counting Season of the Witch). For comparison, the Friday the 13th franchise is also at 12 (one of them being Jason vs Freddy), and the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise is at 8 (not counting Jason vs Freddy).

Moreover, Jason and Freddy haven’t made a silver screen reappearance since 2009 and 2010, respectively. (Though another Friday the 13th film has recently been teased). Clearly, there is something compelling about Mike Myers and Halloween, not just with horror fans, but general audiences, too.

Not to mention producer Jason Blum said the following to ScreenRant when asked if this would be the last movie in the franchise:

"I didn’t say it’s gonna be the last Halloween movie. It’s our last Halloween movie. We have no more rights to make any more Halloween, so it goes back to Malek [Akkad]. And what he does, only he knows, but we are done. And this is our last one and I think people will be very happy."

So, in my opinion, while Halloween Ends may very well be the end of the Green trilogy, I think the Halloween franchise is far from dead. Like the greatest of evils, Halloween will never leave us. Surely it will rise once again sometime down the years, to haunt the dark suburban streets lit only by jack-o-lanterns. When it will happen is anyone’s guess, but that’s not the point. The point is, a sequel or reboot is all a matter of when, not if.