Thanks to both the critical acclaim and the impressive box office results garnered by David Gordon Green and Danny McBride’s Halloween sequel-cum-revival, the 2018 horror blockbuster is getting a string of sequels. The first of these, Halloween Kills, will yet again feature Jamie Lee Curtis’ world-wearied Laurie Strode — as well as the return of Nick Castle, the actor and director who originally played the murderous Michael Myers in John Carpenter’s classic. According to Variety, yet another original franchise character will be making an appearance.
As reported by Collider and later confirmed by Variety, Anthony Michael Hall will play Tommy Doyle in Halloween Kills. If the character name rings a bell, that’s because Tommy was one of the kids whom Laurie was babysitting in the first Halloween film. Actor Brian Andrews played the kid in that film, and archived footage of his performance also appeared in Halloween II. When Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers mixed things up years later, though, the older Tommy was played by none other than suspected vampire Paul Rudd.
Whether or not Hall’s take on Doyle will appear in both Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends, the second sequel to Green and McBride’s franchise reinvention, remains to be seen. The two films are being shot back-to-back, so there’s a chance that he’ll be saddling up for the second movie along with Curtis and Castle. (Or not because, you know, he could die?) As for why Hall is playing the part and not Rudd, Collider reports that the filmmakers had approached him about it. He was evidently “flattered” but unable to make it work due to his commitment to Jason Reitman’s upcoming Ghostbusters movie.
