Halloween Ends will take place long after Halloween Kills due to a time jump between the two films. Set for release in the fall of 2022, Halloween Ends will serve as the conclusion to a trilogy of horror films directed by David Gordon Green that began with the legacy sequel Halloween in 2018 and continued with 2021's particularly violent sequel Halloween Kills. This trilogy serves as a new continuity for the Halloween franchise, which ignores every other installment of the long-running slasher movie series except for John Carpenter's original Halloween from 1978.
Halloween 2018 takes place 40 years after the first movie, with Michael Myers escaping from prison and going on another killing spree in Haddonfield. Halloween Kills picks up immediately after the ending of Halloween, when Laurie Strode, her daughter, Karen, and Karen's daughter, Allyson, think that they've killed Michael in a fire. But Michael survives and continues his rampage while a mob of townsfolk attempts to hunt him down. At the end of Halloween Kills, the group confronts Michael, but they also fail to end his terror. Michael then tracks down Karen and stabs her to death while Laurie remains helpless in the hospital.
Halloween Ends will not similarly take place immediately after Halloween Kills. Instead, there will be a four-year time jump between films, the same amount of time that has passed since the release of Halloween 2018 in the real world. That puts the setting of Halloween Ends as the year 2022, which is 45 years since the events of the first movie. On top of the time jump, Green has confirmed that Halloween Ends will incorporate elements of the real-life COVID-19 pandemic into the story and will show how Haddonfield confronts the trauma of both the still-alive Michael Myers but also the actual events of the last few years.
How Halloween Ends' Time Jump Helps Finish Michael & Laurie's Story
Excluding the flashbacks to 1978 in Halloween Kills, the previous two films took place entirely over one day and night. The four-year time jump to Halloween Ends will allow for Laurie Strode to significantly change as a character, especially due to the death of the daughter she tried so hard to protect from Michael Myers. This will make the supposed final confrontation between Laurie and Michael, shown in the Halloween Ends trailer, far more personal to Laurie, as she will attempt to avenge her daughter by finally killing Michael.
The time jump will also allow Laurie to be a much more active character in Halloween Ends than she was in the previous movie. Laurie was mistakenly wasted in Halloween Kills in a similar way to the retconned Halloween II, as she spends much of the runtime in the hospital. Unlike Halloween II, though, she never even comes face-to-face with Michael in Halloween Kills. Fortunately, going by its trailer, Halloween Ends already looks like it will fix Halloween Kills' mistake and serve as an effective ending to Laurie Strode and Michael Myers' story when it releases in theaters later this year.
