Tommy Doyle returned to the Halloween franchise in Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, where he was played by Paul Rudd and was being set up as the next Dr. Loomis, but the franchise took a new direction after this movie. In 1978, John Carpenter brought Halloween, a slasher movie that wasn’t well-received when it was released, but time has been good to it. Halloween is now regarded as one of the greatest and most influential horror movies ever and made way for a franchise that has gone through a couple of retcons.
Halloween tells the story of Michael Myers, who on Halloween night 1963, murdered his sister when he was just six years old, and so he was sent to Smith’s Grove Sanitarium. Fifteen years later, on October 30, 1978, Michael escaped and returned to his hometown Haddonfield, Illinois, where he began to stalk Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her friends. Laurie was the only survivor of Michael’s killing spree on Halloween night and continued to be his main target in most movies, but one character that remained a constant in the franchise until his final days was Dr. Samuel Loomis (Donald Pleasence), who treated Michael at Smith’s Grove and knew well how dangerous he was.
Loomis appeared in all movies in the Halloween franchise (including the remakes, where he was played by Malcolm McDowell) up until Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, after which he was only mentioned or shown in flashbacks. Halloween 6 brought back another character from the original movie: Tommy Doyle, the boy Laurie was babysitting on that traumatic Halloween night. Now played by Paul Rudd, Tommy became obsessed with Michael and theorized that the reason behind his killings was the Curse of Thorn (and he was right), and became the hero of the movie by saving Jamie Lloyd’s baby son and Kara Strode, Laurie’s cousin. Tommy was being set up as the new Dr. Loomis, both having an obsession with Michael and going after him, and he could have played the part in Halloween 7 had there not been a change of plans for the franchise.
Speaking to Halloween Daily News in 2014, Halloween 6 writer Daniel Farrands confirmed Paul Rudd’s Tommy Doyle was being set up as the new Loomis in terms of being the hero of the story who is obsessed with Michael Myers. Farrands explained they never saw Pleasence’s passing coming but knew that the character wouldn’t be around for long, so they intended for Tommy to take over Loomis’ place. Sadly, Halloween 6 wasn’t what Farrands had in mind, and the final product was very different from his vision for it, which in addition to the underperformance of the movie, put an end to all plans for Halloween 7 as a proper sequel. Farrands also shared what Halloween 7 would have been like, with the story picking up right after the end of the previous movie, with Tommy seen as an “obsessed Michael Myers fanatic” and the one responsible for Michael’s killings as a copycat killer. Tommy, then, would have had to clear his name while also continuing his chase after Michael, mostly to stop him from killing more and more people.
Having Tommy as the new Loomis in Halloween 7 and beyond would have linked the first movie to the Jamie Lloyd storyline that ended up feeling disconnected due to Laurie’s absence. As Tommy was part of the Cult of Thorn storyline, with him as the lead in subsequent movies the franchise could have delved deeper into the cult, its backstory, and clear all questions the audience was left with after Halloween 6. Tommy didn’t become the new hero of the Halloween franchise, but he’s coming back in Halloween Kills to further connect the reboot movies with the original one.
