David Gordon Green’s recent Halloween trilogy brings Michael Myers back with full force, but not without erasing a chunk of the franchise’s history.
Starting with Halloween (2018), followed by Halloween Kills (2021) and Halloween Ends (2022), these films essentially reset the timeline, acknowledging only the events of John Carpenter’s original 1978 classic. So, if you’re looking for the sibling storyline between Michael and Laurie Strode, sorry — this trilogy chucks that plot point right out the window.
In Green’s version, Laurie Strode (played once again by the iconic Jamie Lee Curtis) is back on the defensive, but this time her connection to Michael Myers (James Jude Courtney) is more basic: she’s simply the survivor of his original 1978 massacre. Gone is the familial twist that made them siblings, a plot point introduced in Halloween II (1981). But here’s the kicker: even though Green’s films ignore all the sequels, they can’t fully escape their shadow.
A scene in Halloween (2018) makes this clear when Laurie’s granddaughter, Allyson, dismisses the idea that Laurie and Michael are related, calling it something “that’s something that people made up to make themselves feel better.” While it’s a clear signal that the sibling storyline is no longer canon, it oddly draws attention to Halloween II, the very film it’s meant to ignore. It’s a weirdly self-aware moment for a franchise trying to wipe the slate clean.
But Halloween II isn’t entirely forgotten. Even as Green’s trilogy dismisses the whole “Laurie is Michael’s sister” thing, it borrows some visual elements and nods from the sequel. For example, Halloween Kills features a flashback to the original 1978 Halloween night, showing Annie Brackett’s body on a stretcher—an image straight out of Halloween II. The trilogy even brings back Sheriff Brackett (Charles Cyphers) just so he can remind the audience that Michael killed his daughter 40 years ago. Instead of sticking strictly to the first film for its callbacks, Green’s trilogy dips into the sequel’s imagery, muddying the waters.
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And if you’re thinking, “Wait, didn’t Michael Myers get blown up in a hospital at the end of Halloween II?”, you’d be right. In Halloween (2018), however, Michael has been incarcerated for 40 years instead — the explosion never happened, which conveniently allows for the character’s return in a way that suits the new narrative.
The tricky thing about these reboots is that they both acknowledge and ignore the past. Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) tried something similar when it dropped the events of the Halloween 4, 5, and 6 sequels (collectively referred to as the Thorn trilogy), returning to the Laurie vs. Michael dynamic.
But Halloween H20 could’ve adopted the narrative of the Thorn trilogy (Halloween 4, 5, 6) fairly easily, by explaining that Laurie’s off-screen death in Halloween 4 was the “faked death” we learn she concocted prior to H20. Similarly, David Gordon Green’s trilogy could have embraced Halloween II while cutting out the sibling twist—after all, the 1981 film doesn’t overly dwell on the idea, save for one quick reveal.
Green’s trilogy also features some newly created flashback scenes to fill in the gaps between the original 1978 film and the events of Halloween (2018). These scenes show Michael continuing his killing spree in Haddonfield before he’s eventually captured by the local police—a sharp contrast to the hospital showdown in Halloween II.
By acknowledging only the original Halloween, Green’s films have sparked debates among fans about whether the franchise’s complex timeline should have been simplified in this way. Some fans miss the sibling dynamic that gave the Laurie-Michael confrontation more emotional weight. Others are fine with the reset, viewing it as a back-to-basics approach to the slasher formula.
Ultimately, Halloween (2018), Kills, and Ends may have trimmed the fat by ignoring many of the sequels, but they’re still haunted by the franchise’s convoluted past. Even when trying to wipe the slate clean, it’s clear that the legacy of Halloween II and its sequels is too deeply ingrained to be fully forgotten.
Michael Myers will always loom large in the horror genre, whether as Laurie’s brother or simply as the bogeyman who terrorized her all those years ago. And with new reboots and even a TV series on the way, it looks like this masked killer is far from hanging up his knife anytime soon.
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