The horror genre has been in an exciting renaissance for the past few years, with plenty of original movies hitting theaters to critical and box office acclaim. But some classic franchises have also enjoyed this success, including Blumhouse's 2018 take on Halloween. The success of the timeline-altering slasher has inspired two more sequels, but it turns out that we could have gotten another Halloween title before Rob Zombie's own 2007 remake.
Rob Zombie revealed his own take on Michael Myers and Laurie Strode's story during his pair of Halloween movies. They were noticeably meaner and more violent than John Carpenter's original, but managed to make money at the box office. But it turns out that another movie set in the same timeline as Halloween: Resurrection was originally planned by screenwriterJake Wade Wall titled Halloween: The Missing Years. He recently explained the story behind this scrapped entry into the franchise, saying:
I had been hired to do a draft of Resurrection. I was working with an exec over there, Nick Phillips. We were both incredibly enthusiastic about the franchise, and really excited by it. We were just nerds about it, and would talk about Halloween constantly. We knew every character, every death. It’s one of my favorite franchises. After turning in Resurrection, I was told that there was kind of an internal, ‘Let’s press pause on where the franchise goes next’ [approach]. So I had come up with the idea for The Missing Years, and basically said, ‘Hey, it’s a completely different direction, but maybe this is the shot in the arm it needs to keep the franchise going, but in a different direction.’ They responded to my take, they hired me, and I wrote it. I was really excited about the prospect of that one. A year or two after finishing that script, it was decided internally, ‘No, let’s hire Rob and just do a remake.’ The Missing Years would have been the last of that franchise before it was remade.
FOMO alert. It looks like Michael Myers could have had yet another big screen rampage during the original franchise, before the idea for Halloween: The Missing Years was ultimately scrapped. While this made way for Rob Zombie's pair of movies, fans of the property are no doubt curious about what Jake Wade Wall's script would have entailed. And now Missing Year's title seems all the more appropriate.
Jake Wade Wall's comments to Bloody Disgusting is sure to blow the minds of a few horror fans, especially those who are invested in John Carpenter's iconic Halloween franchise. While Halloween: Resurrection failed to perform (and unceremoniously killed of Jamie Lee Curtis' Laurie Strode), it turns out that another movie set within the main franchise could have happened prior to Rob Zombie's movies. But The Missing Years never made it past the development stage, to the dismay of its writer.
Later in his same interview, Jake Wade Wall explained his idea for Halloween: The Missing Years. And surprisingly it turns out that he was hoping to tie up some narrative threads that were left with OG threequel Season of the Witch. You know, the only Halloween movie without Michael Myers. As he explained,
Halloween III was my inspiration. We have Halloween and Halloween II, and it’s Mike Myers, and it’s Laurie. Halloween III comes out in the theaters, and it has nothing to do with any of them. So then the franchise picks back up [with Halloween 4]. For years, I thought ‘Where was [Michael] that year? When we saw Season of the Witch, where did he go?’ So the whole concept of Halloween: The Missing Years, was to fill in where he was during Season of the Witch. That was the concept of, ‘How can we, for the diehard fans, tie Season of the Witch into the franchise?
Well, this is intriguing. Halloween III: Season of the Witch gets a bad wrap among horror fans, as the movie somehow doesn't include Michael Myers. This was a bold narrative choice that didn't necessarily work out, and it looks like Jake Wade Wall was hoping to retcon and explain The Shape's absence in The Missing Years. Unfortunately, that never saw the light of day.
In the end, Rob Zombie was given creative control over his pair of Halloween movies. The films included a new teenage Laurie Strode as a teenager in the modern world. The movies are grueling and bloody, as the filmmaker is wont to do. But when his Halloween II failed to perform at the box office, the franchise ended up in hibernation until 2018's Halloween movie hit theaters and broke records.
The beloved franchise will continue with Halloween Kills on October 15, 2021, a year after its original release date. In the meantime, check out our 2021 release list to plan your trips to the movies next year
