'Halloween' Franchise Reportedly Set To Continue With New Films or TV Shows

Halloween Ends may have laid the decades-spanning story of Michael Myers and Laurie Strode to rest, but it didn't take the franchise with it. Nearly a year after director David Gordon Green's and Blumhouse's trilogy concluded, new life may be stoked back into the franchise, with new reports suggesting that the Halloween franchise's current rights-coowner, Malek Akkad's Trancas International Films, is shopping the series around to find new producing partners to continue the series.

According to a new report by Bloody Disgusting, Trancas International Films, which co-owns the film series with Miramax but is the sole owner of all television rights, is "actively" shopping the rights to the cult classic slasher franchise around Hollywood, igniting a "massive bidding war." The outlet reports that "several different parties" are currently interested in the franchise, with A24 and Miramax said to be the two main parties currently leading the battle. A24, which recently won the rights to produce a Friday the 13th TV series, is leading the charge.

According to Bloody Disgusting, the current bidding game could result in Michael Myers hitting the small screen, as Trancas is currently shopping around television rights. This means a Halloween TV series, which would mark a first for the franchise, could be on the horizon. However, sources told the outlet that "Trancas is open to both film and television projects," though Miramax would be "a participant in any film deal as they co-own film rights to all sequels."

It has been over 40 years since the Halloween franchise first launched when the original movie slashed its way into theaters in 1978. Written by John Carpenter and Debra Hill, terrified audiences with the story of what would be dubbed "The Babysitter Murders," documenting Halloween night in the fictional Haddonfield, Illinois, when Michael Myers escapes the sanitarium where he has been locked away for 15 years after brutally killing his sister. What is supposed to be a night of Halloween tricks and treats turns into something much more terrifying for three young women, Jamie Lee Curtis' Laurie Strode.

The film not only terrified audiences, but also became one of the most profitable independent films of all time. It was followed by 12 additional films, spanning different timelines – Halloween II, Halloween III: Season of the Witch, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, Halloween: Resurrection, Halloween (2007), Halloween II (2009), Halloween (2018), Halloween Kills, and Halloween Ends – with the franchise having grossed over $884 million at the box office worldwide.

With those numbers and the lasting popularity of the franchise, it comes as little surprise that Halloween Ends wasn't truly the end. What remains to be seen if how exactly the Halloween franchise could live on. It's possible that a relaunch of the franchise could veer away from the story of Michael Myers and instead return to the franchise to its original concept: an anthology. Carpenter originally intended the series of films to be an anthology, with Halloween III: Season of the Witch abandoning Michael Myers altogether for a standalone film. However, the movie's poor reception as a result of The Boogeyman's absence resulted in the franchise returning to the Michael Myers storyline. Given the fact that Michael Myers continues to haunt viewers, it seems likely that he will probably stick around long-term.