Credit: Inside the MagicIt’s that time of year again. As September rolls on and spooky season approaches, horror fans are revisiting some of the genre’s most famous movies, and few franchises are more closely associated with the night of October 31 and the weeks leading up to it than Halloween itself.
This year, there’s another reason for fans to return to Haddonfield, as Halloween: The Game has officially arrived, bringing Michael Myers to video game consoles.
But there’s still the question of Miramax’s long-gestating Halloween TV series.
The series was first announced in October 2023. In an interview with Deadline in March 2024, then Head Of Worldwide Television at Miramax Marc Helwig described the project as “a creative reset completely and going back to the original film, as opposed to spinning out of any of the more recent film adaptations”
He added that Carpenter’s film would be the “foundation” of the upcoming TV series, and that the project would likely focus on characters we haven’t really seen much of across the films, explaining that “it’s a big world.” He also emphasized that the series will not have any ties to Green’s Halloween trilogy, saying, “I don’t think that is an opportunity to go off the back of that.”
That means the series will return to John Carpenter’s original Halloween (1978) rather than continue the timeline established by David Gordon Green’s Halloween (2018), Halloween Kills (2021), and Halloween Ends (2022), or any of the previous films in the long-running franchise.
With all that said, the Halloween TV series desperately needs to do something different, especially seeing as the new game already revisits the original film.
At this point, the franchise feels permanently anchored to the 1978 film, with the most recent trilogy from Blumhouse ignoring every sequel since Carpenter’s classic and bringing back Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) for yet another showdown with Michael Myers (James Jude Courtney).
Unfortunately, there have been no updates since Helwig’s comments, and in July, Scream Horror Mag reported that Miramax may have actually shelved its Halloween TV series for a new movie.
But going on the assumption it’s still in the works, it’s interesting to consider what the TV series could become. One possibility is that it could make good use of the franchise’s famously complicated history: what if each episode were effectively a sequel to a different Halloween movie?
Halloween III: Season of the Witch Sets the Stage
It would be fitting for the first episode to return to Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982), the movie that famously abandoned Michael Myers altogether.
The third movie was conceived as the beginning of an anthology approach, with future Halloween movies telling entirely different Halloween-themed stories. But the bogeyman returned for Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988), and the experiment ended after one movie.
A television series could finally revisit that idea while also acknowledging Halloween III as part of the franchise’s history. An episode could return to Santa Mira, explore the aftermath of the Silver Shamrock massacre, or introduce an entirely new nightmare connected to the events of the movie.
The Fan-Favorite Jamie Lloyd Ending Revisited
Then there’s Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris). Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers ends with young Jamie seemingly taking her first steps toward becoming her uncle Michael’s successor when she stabs her foster mother with a pair of scissors.
But Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989) inexplicably abandons that storyline and followed a different path.
An episode in the TV series could simply ask what would have happened if the story had continued directly from Halloween 4, ignoring everything that followed and giving Jamie’s controversial cliffhanger a completely different conclusion. In other words, a female Michael Myers.
Halloween H20 Could Get the Sequel It Deserved
The same approach could be used with Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998).
That movie already created its own timeline by ignoring the events of Halloween 4, Halloween 5, and Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995). It then concluded with Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) finally killing Michael Myers, only for Halloween: Resurrection (2002) to undo that ending.
An anthology-style episode could simply pick up from H20, allowing that timeline to continue without requiring the series to acknowledge Resurrection.
Rob Zombie’s Halloween III — a Trick or a Treat?
Rob Zombie’s Halloween (2007) and Halloween II (2009) created another completely separate continuity, and that story was also left behind.
That makes the ending of Halloween II (2009) another potential starting point. An episode could revisit Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor-Compton) after the events of the movie, explore the aftermath of Michael Myers’ death, or reveal what happened to the surviving characters.
It would also give the TV series a way to acknowledge Zombie’s two films without committing to making an entire new season within that continuity.
What Happened Between Halloween Kills and Ends?
Finally, there’s the most recent timeline.
Halloween Kills ends with Michael Myers returning to the Strode house, while Halloween Ends (2022) jumps forward four years. That leaves a substantial period of time largely unexplored.
Rather than continuing Halloween Ends, one episode could simply fill in that gap and explain what The Shape (James Jude Courtney) was doing during that time and how he wound up in the sewers.
None of this has been confirmed by Miramax, and there’s currently no indication that the TV series — if it’s even still happening — will actually adopt an anthology format.
However, with the Halloween franchise already divided across multiple continuities, television could provide an opportunity to revisit some of the stories that were left behind rather than simply starting over once again.
And if the series really is intended as a “creative reset,” perhaps that reset does not have to erase the franchise’s past. Perhaps it could finally find a way to use it.
Would you like to see the Halloween TV series revisit one of the franchise’s abandoned timelines? Let us know in the comments below!
