James Jude Courtney, who plays Michael Myers in the current Halloween trilogy, confirms that Halloween Ends begins filming in January 2022. Several Halloween sequels were made throughout the '80s and '90s, but the franchise took a brief hiatus between Rob Zombie's Halloween II and 2018's Halloween. The newest iteration of Michael Myers is being helmed by director David Gordon Green and retcons every previous sequel, taking place 40 years after John Carpenter's original movie.
After Green's Halloween proved to be a success both financially and critically, Universal greenlit two sequels in July 2019. Halloween Kills was originally slated to hit theaters on October 16, 2020, and Halloween Ends a year later on October 15, 2021. Both films were delayed by a year after the COVID pandemic made those release dates impossible. Halloween Kills took about a month to film at the end of 2019, so it was able to finish before productions got shut down. Halloween Kills' release date was the only thing affected by the pandemic, but Halloween Ends still hasn't started filming despite many productions now starting back up.
Courtney gave an update on the status of Halloween Ends during a recent panel at Flashback Weekend in Chicago. When asked if anything for Halloween Ends was able to be shot before the pandemic, Courtney confirmed that the third film in the trilogy will start filming on January 10, 2022. With Halloween Kills not even being released yet, the actor couldn't tease much about the third movie but touched upon how secretive they are keeping the next two sequels.
Filming starting in January gives Blumhouse and Universal less post-production time than they had on Halloween Kills, yet they should still have plenty of time before Halloween Ends is released in October 2022. Halloween Kills is said to be even more brutal than its predecessor, but it didn't seem to affect the time it took to film. With that in mind, Halloween Ends may take a little longer if they plan to up the action for the final movie and end the trilogy with a bang.
This most recent update reveals that filming will start a little later than expected, as Courtney previously stated that Halloween Ends would start production this Fall. At this point, it's unknown why filming has been delayed by a few months. One reason for the delay could be that Blumhouse wants to see how fans and critics react to Halloween Kills in October. Halloween Ends will be the final film in this iteration of the series, so it is crucial they stick the landing. It's possible slight story and script changes could be made based on the reception of Halloween Kills, but that is only speculation at this point. There is a lot of hype surrounding both Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends, so the studio and filmmakers will no doubt do everything they can to give the saga of Michael Myers and Laurie Strode a proper ending.
Source: Flashback Weekend
