The Halloween franchise has been retconned a couple of times, and in one of those timelines, Laurie Strode had a son named John, but the Josh Hartnett Halloween character hasn't appeared since 1998's Halloween H20. Halloween follows the story of Michael Myers, who after killing his sister 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 to stalk Laurie and her friends. As the franchise evolved, Laurie was given a daughter, Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris), introduced in 1988's Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers. Jamie became the new protagonist after Laurie was killed and written out of the franchise's first cannon. A decade on, the first Halloween retcon happened in 1998 with Halloween H20: 20 Years Later. The new Halloween timeline brought Laurie back and left Jamie Lloyd aside, instead making the Laurie Strode son character John Strode.
Halloween H20 ignored all the movies that came after Halloween 2, meaning that in this timeline, Laurie and Michael are still siblings. It’s explained that Laurie faked her own death, so she could hide from Michael and live a normal life, which she did for many years under the alias Keri Tate. Laurie became a teacher and had a son, John (Josh Hartnett), who attended the school she worked at. Michael found out all about her new life, the Laurie Strode son character, and her whereabouts and went after her, killing John’s friends in the process. Ultimately, Laurie managed to get John and his girlfriend, Molly (Michelle Williams), to safety, and decided to get rid of Michael on her own. She stole the coroner’s van he was loaded into and decapitated him, but the sequel, Halloween: Resurrection, revealed that it was not Michael who she killed. Laurie was thusly sent to a psychiatric hospital, where she was killed by the real Michael Myers. Halloween: Resurrection gave some closure to Laurie’s arc, but it failed to follow up with her son, who didn’t show up in the movie. Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends both featured Jamie Lee Curtis as her titular character, but the Josh Hartnett Halloween character didn't show up there either. Here's why Laurie's son doesn't exist in the new Halloween movies.
Halloween Doesn't Have Single Cohesive Timeline
Instead, Halloween: Resurrection focused on a new group of victims, completely unrelated to the Laurie Strode son character and the rest of her family. The Josh Hartnett Halloween character was originally planned to return in a sequel to Resurrection, so he could avenge his mother’s death. However, the critical backlash and low box office numbers ultimately killed those plans, with the next installment in the franchise being Rob Zombie’s Halloween in 2007. John’s fate hasn’t been addressed, and as Michael didn’t even track him down, instead going after a group of strangers, it’s generally assumed that he was sent far away from Haddonfield, so he could carry on with his life without having to worry about his uncle going after him.
When a new Halloween movie was announced, many fans were hoping to see John or, at least, were expecting an explanation of what happened to him, but the 2018 movie ignores all Halloween sequels completely, meaning that neither Jamie Lloyd nor John ever existed. The same goes for its subsequent entries in the reboot trilogy, Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends. John’s fate is one of the biggest loose threads the Halloween retcons have left. Ultimately that leaves what happened to Laurie's son in Halloween open to interpretation, and it's up to fans to decide for themselves what they think John's fate was in the H20/Resurrection timeline.
Laurie's Son Didn't Appear In Halloween Ends, But She Does Have Kids
The Laurie Strode son character hasn't come back to the Halloween franchise after Halloween H20. Therefore, audiences will probably never see John again. While Laurie does have family in the most recently rebooted Halloween canon, the role has been taken over by Andi Matichak, who plays her granddaughter Allyson Nelson. In Halloween Ends, Laurie lives with her granddaughter, who is a nurse, while she is writing a memoir. The story of Halloween Ends mainly focuses on Allyson and Corey Cunningham (Rohan Campbell) and their budding love affair amidst the next killing spree of Michael Myers/The Shape. Both the Josh Hartnett Halloween character and Laurie's daughter Jamie are nowhere to be found in the movie. It's unclear why the franchise decided to retcon Josh Hartnett's character, especially considering that the Halloween franchise started over with Halloween H20, forgetting Laurie's daughter and anything else that happened after Halloween 2. Instead, Karen Nelson (Judy Greer) is now Laurie's daughter, but she's killed by Michael Myers in Halloween Kills. There's not really a formal reason behind why the Halloween movies have decided to discard Laurie's former children entirely, but equally there isn't a huge fanbase demand for their return. Still, for those who haven't followed all thirteen Halloween movies, jumping into Halloween Ends or Kills to find Laurie has a completely new Josh Hartnett-free family can be a bit jarring.