Next year's Halloween sequel has reportedly moved its release date target to Halloween night. If this new release date holds, the film would become the first in franchise history to actually open in theaters on the titular holiday. It would also be the first entry in the storied slasher series to open in October at all since 1989's Halloween 5. For whatever reason, Dimension Films has thought Halloween to be a better fit for any month other than October for the last 28 years, which kind of boggles the mind.

The as yet still untitled new Halloween film will be directed by David Gordon Green and co-written by Green and Danny McBride. Both men are far more well known for their work in comedy than anything else, but at the time of their announcement as part of the project, franchise creator John Carpenter personally endorsed their pitch for the next chapter in the Michael Myers legacy. Carpenter remains creatively involved, serving as an executive producer and providing feedback for the script. This will be the first Halloween effort with any Carpenter involvement since 1982's divisive, Michael Myers-less sequel Halloween III: Season of the Witch.

Related: John Carpenter Wants to Score the New Halloween Sequel

Back when Green and McBride first boarded the film, Carpenter also revealed that Halloween's latest sequel would arrive in theaters on October 19. The news that Halloween night is the film's new target comes courtesy of Jason Guerrasio, reporting out of the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival, where Guerrasio was able to get a Halloween sequel progress update straight from Green. Check out Guerrasio's original tweet below:

Not too much is known about the plot of the new Halloween, outside of the fact that it will be a direct sequel to 1981's Halloween II. Co-writer McBride has also said that villain Michael Myers won't be a supernatural, immortal killer this time out, as he explicitly became as the original franchise wore on. That said, that notion in itself presents a logical problem.

While there was nothing particularly supernatural about Myers in Carpenter's original - outside of him surviving six gunshots at the end of the film - Green and McBride's film is set after Halloween II, which saw Myers get his eyes shot out by Dr. Loomis, then get blown up. It's hard to imagine an explanation for his survival that doesn't involve something otherworldly, outside of a simple hand wave that says to fans "the villain you like is alive again, let's just accept it and move on." That is in itself somewhat of a tradition in slasher cinema.

NEXT: A Complete History of the Halloween Franchise So Far

Dimension's new Halloween sequel is targeting an October 31, 2018 release date. We'll let you know if that changes (or when it becomes official).

Source: Jason Guerrasio