Dr. Samuel Loomis makes a surprise return for a flashback scene in Halloween Kills, but who plays the role? Horror legend Christopher Lee famously turned down the part of Dr. Loomis in the original Halloween, who is the obsessed psychiatrist of escaped killer Michael Myers. Lee's loss was Donald Pleasence's gain, who later admitted to director John Carpenter that he only took the role because his daughter liked the score to Carpenter's Assault On Precinct 13.
Halloween would later become a surprise smash hit, and Loomis would evolve into the Van Helsing of the series. Pleasence returned for Halloween 2 and following a series hiatus for the Michael Myers-free Halloween 3, would reprise Loomis for Halloween 4, 5 and 6. The actor brought a real gravitas to the character and grounded even the more outlandish sequels. Curiously, despite having many chances, Michael never dealt a killing blow to his former doctor through these original outings either, suggest he either had some emotional attachment - or he just wanted Dr. Loomis to suffer over his failure to stop him.
Donald Pleasence passed away in 1995 following the sixth movie, with Malcolm McDowall later taking on the Dr. Loomis role for Rob Zombie's Halloween movies. Halloween 2018 and its sequel Halloween Kills follow on from the original movie, so fans - quite rightly - never expected to see Donald Pleasence's Dr. Loomis return. Halloween Kills made the bold choice of featuring Loomis as part of the sequel's extended 1978 flashback sequence, but instead of mapping Pleasence's face on a stand-in, the role is played by Tom Jones, Jr.
If the name Tom Jones, Jr doesn't sound familiar, that's because Halloween Kills' Dr. Loomis is his first acting credit. He is, however, a prolific construction coordinator, having worked on projects such as The Abyss, The Conjuring and the Swamp Thing series. He also bears an uncanny resemblance to Donald Pleasence, so when combined with the voice of soundalike Colin Mahan - who voiced the doctor on an audio recording in Halloween 2018 - Loomis was brought back to life for Halloween Kills.
Tom Jones, Jr was in line to play Dr. Loomis in Halloween 2018 too. The character would have appeared in a restaged version of the original film's finale, where instead of shooting Michael, Myers instead kills Loomis and it's left to Laurie to shoot the killer herself. This sequence was later dropped, but it obviously spurred the notion of Jones, Jr playing Loomis. It's definitely a fun curio seeing the Donald Pleasence-era Dr. Loomis appear again, though it's more questionable if the sequel really needed this appearance. Loomis' Halloween Kills cameo is too fleeting to make much of an impact, and it feels more like a gimmick than an integral part of the story.