Halloween Kills Pushed to 2021, Debuts First Teaser Trailer

The latest casualty in the slew of major studio films to have their release dates pushed back would be David Gordon Green’s Halloween Kills, the sequel to his confusingly titled direct sequel Halloween from 2018. And unfortunately, given the marketing potency of releasing this type of film around the holiday in question, the next appearance of Michael Myers isn’t just being pushed back a month or two, but a whole year. The new release date is Oct. 2021, when it will reportedly be seen in IMAX. Green and original series creator, legendary director John Carpenter, made the announcement via Twitter.

I know you all have been looking forward to an update on the status of “Halloween Kills”. Here it is: pic.twitter.com/EWivyipYgR

— John Carpenter (@TheHorrorMaster) July 8, 2020

This announcement creates an interesting scenario that could potentially, but doubtfully result in two Halloween films being released during the next October season, as that was meant to be the home of the third film in this particular trilogy, Halloween Ends. Universal and Blumhouse could still choose to go that route if they wanted, presenting what amounted to a Michael Myers double feature, but it seems far more likely they’ll instead be targeting Halloween Ends to the fall of 2022 in order to maximize the box office gross of each film. After all, the 2018 film made more than $255 million worldwide on a budget of less than $15 million, making it extremely profitable despite our tepid review.

As something of a consolation, Green and Carpenter also released a very short teaser featuring some of the first footage we’ve seen of Halloween Kills, with the three generations of Strode women escaping the burning home (containing Michael) seen at the end of 2018’s Halloween. All seems well, until they see the fire trucks and ambulances heading the opposite direction, which will clearly be key in Myers’ survival. As Jamie Lee Curtis howls in response: “Let it burn! Let it burn!”

Carpenter and Green are promising an even better film with an additional year to work on post-production, so it will be interesting to see what they come up with. We’ll bring you more info on Halloween Kills as soon as it breaks—in the meantime, check out the new teaser below.