Halloween Ends: Where Can the Franchise Go From Here?

Sticking a final nail in Michael’s proverbial coffin, his body is then driven through the streets of Haddonfield to show his reign of terror is over. As the crowds gather at the scrapyard, Laurie shoves Michael’s body in an industrial metal cutter, and he’s (physically) gone for good. Laurie finishes her manuscript, finally looks ready to settle with Deputy Hawkins (Will Patton), and accepts Allyson has left town to start afresh. Halloween Ends has no post-credit scene, but instead, there’s an ominous shot that shows Laurie has kept his mask. 

So is that the real end of Halloween?

A New Shape Emerges

If Halloween Ends isn’t the end, there’s potential for Allyson’s story to continue in another film if she were stalked by her own personal boogeyman. Consider that Ends split the kills between Michael and Rohan Campbell’s Corey Cunningham. It’s implied that Allyson’s boyfriend has been possessed by the evil of Myers, which nearly fits Laurie’s closing warning of “evil doesn’t die, it changes shape.” And even after being shot by Laurie and stabbing himself in the throat, it was impressive how the next generation of “Shape” kept going until Michael additionally snapped his neck. Could Corey’s similar abilities to dodge death make him an ideal candidate to become the “next” Michael Myers? He didn’t go in the metal shredder. 

If we want to continue the reboot timeline but not rely on Corey as Michael Myers II, now might also be the time to revisit some of the many cancelled Halloween movies that never came to pass. Rob Zombie’s Halloween 3D or a Halloween 666 that took Tommy Doyle to hell with a VR headset would never happen, but others could still work. In 2021, screenwriter Daniel Farrands told Bloody Disgusting how a pitch for a Halloween H2O sequel (called Halloween 8: Lord of the Dead) would’ve ended with a shock twist where Michael’s mask was pulled off to reveal Laurie underneath.

It might feel like a rehash of Halloween 4’s climax with Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris) or the alternate ending of Rob Zombie’s Halloween II where Laurie (Scout Taylor-Compton) succumbed to the evil of Michael, but having rooted for Curtis’ Laurie for decades, it would be one for the history books if she came back as the killer. Although Curtis has repeatedly said she’s done, imagine Michael being “back from the dead” in a Halloween Ends sequel, only to have Laurie revealed at the end. It would make Halloween more like a Scream movie, but with Ends implying Laurie has also been brushed with Michael’s evil like Corey, it’s not impossible to pull off. 

The ‘Curse’ Of Michael Myers

But if we were to leave the Strodes behind, the OG Halloween was famously pitched as an anthology series revolving around different events on Oct. 31. It was an idea that Carpenter and co-creator Debra Hill finally got their way on in 1982’s Halloween III: Season of the Witch.