Halloween Ends is the final entry in the Halloween reboot trilogy, and while it’s believed to be the closing chapter in the franchise, the title might be lying to the audience and could be referring to a different type of “ending”. Some of the biggest trends in the film industry in recent years are reboots and “requels”, and these have been especially prominent in the horror genre, with different franchises being revived through these trends. One franchise that quickly joined the fun with a reboot trilogy is Halloween, which started strong with David Gordon Green’s Halloween in 2018 but was followed by a disappointing sequel in 2021 titled Halloween Kills.
In order to reboot the Halloween franchise again and refresh the story of Michael Myers and Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), the reboot trilogy is a direct continuation of John Carpenter’s original movie, completely ignoring all the sequels that followed. Carpenter’s Halloween introduced viewers to Michael Myers, who after killing his sister on Halloween night 1963 when he was six-years-old, was sent to Smith’s Grove Sanitarium. Fifteen years later, Michael escaped and returned to his hometown Haddonfield, Illinois, where he began stalking Laurie, who went on to become the franchise’s main final girl, even if she was later replaced by her daughter, Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris), and Sara Moyer (Bianca Kajlich) in the not-so-popular Halloween: Resurrection.
Since Carpenter’s original movie, the Halloween movie series has gone through different retcons, the most recent one Gordon Green’s reboot trilogy, which is coming to an end in October 2022 with Halloween Ends. As the new Halloween movies ignore the past sequels, in this timeline Laurie and Michael are not siblings (nor are they related in any other way) and Laurie had a daughter, Karen (Judy Greer), and a granddaughter, Allyson (Andi Matichak), who also became targets of Michael Myers. Halloween Ends is the final entry in the reboot trilogy and is believed to be the closing chapter in the franchise as well, but the title might be fooling the audience into thinking that, and it could end up taking the Halloween saga in a different direction.
Halloween Ends' Title Suggests It's The Franchise's Last Movie
The Halloween movie series has been close to its end a couple of times, but the fact that the final movie in the reboot trilogy is titled Halloween Ends is a more obvious indication that the franchise might be getting its final movie. Carpenter’s original plan for Halloween was for it to be an anthology movie series, a concept that was retaken in Halloween III: Season of the Witch, which told a story separate from that of Michael Myers and Laurie Strode, but the franchise ended up going back to Michael Myers’ story in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, this time with Jamie Lloyd as the lead as Laurie was killed between Halloween II and Halloween 4. Halloween seemed to have reached its end again with Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, but it was rebooted three years later with Halloween H20: 20 Years Later. This movie brought Laurie back, didn’t include Jamie Lloyd, and gave Laurie a son, John Tate (Josh Hartnett), and it was followed by another fake conclusion to the franchise: Halloween: Resurrection, which killed Laurie during the first act.
Halloween Ends has everything to make the audience believe it will close the Halloween franchise, and it goes beyond the movie’s title. Halloween Kills saw Michael Myers killing Karen, so Laurie now has even bigger reasons to end with “The Boogeyman” and will surely do everything she can to keep Allyson safe, so narratively speaking, Halloween Ends makes sense as the franchise’s final movie – however, Halloween Ends could actually be hiding something more in its title, and it might not be the end of the franchise after all.
Why Halloween Ends Probably Won't Be The Last One
The Halloween franchise is one of the longest-running ones in the horror genre, covering not only movies but also video games, comic books, and novels, so it has always found a way to continue expanding. The franchise has also become well-known for its retcons and the different timelines these have created (along with the remakes by Rob Zombie), so there are reasons to believe Halloween Ends might not live up to its title in the most literal way and won’t be the closing chapter. Along with the trend of reboots and requels, different franchises have teased their end in recent years only to come up with yet another movie, as recently happened with the Scream saga. Nothing ever really ends nowadays in the film industry and there are always ways to continue expanding, so Halloween Ends might instead be referring to a different type of ending, one that, funny enough, will allow the franchise to keep going for a couple more years with more sequels, soft reboots, or even spinoffs that could expand on the stories of some characters.
What Halloween Ends' Title Will Really Mean
The most common and obvious interpretation of Halloween Ends’ title is that it will bring the franchise to an end, but taking into account the above-mentioned trends, the franchise’s history of retcons, and the different ways in which other franchises have continued to expand, Halloween Ends could be referring to another type of ending. The title of Halloween Ends could instead be referring to the end of Laurie and Michael’s story, which doesn’t exactly mean that it will be a good one for both. Some theories suggest that Halloween Ends will kill Laurie and Michael, or at least one of them will die as they will follow the trope of one having to die for the other to live and thus save the rest as well.
Halloween Ends being the end of Laurie and Michael’s story instead of the end of the franchise makes more sense when looking at other franchises, such as the Scream universe. Halloween could follow those steps and, supposing Michael Myers survives, now focus on a new generation of characters, led by Allyson, who will have to defeat The Boogeyman. The franchise could even opt for prequels in order to better explore Michael Myers’ backstory, especially his time at Smith’s Grove, which is something Rob Zombie did in his remakes. Now, another ongoing trend is multiverses, and with the Halloween franchise having different timelines, it wouldn’t be surprising if this is turned into a Halloween multiverse, which would allow Michael Myers to star in more movies after Halloween Ends under the excuse of exploring what he does in other universes/timelines. There are various reasons to believe Halloween Ends won’t be the end of the Halloween franchise, but the studio is risking losing the interest of the audience if it continues to expand the franchise after Halloween Ends.
