An exhausted 13-film franchise that ended less than a year ago rebooting as a shared universe takes an obligatory and well-earned pasting

Not even fresh bodies are allowed to go cold when there’s money to be made, as evidenced by Halloween already preparing to make its way back to screens, and this time it’s even being threatened as the beginning of an entire shared universe.

Tomorrow marks exactly one year to the day since David Gordon Green’s wildly disappointing Halloween Ends was released, and despite the nomenclature, nobody bought for a second that it would really be the end of the road for Michael Myers. That being said, plans for another resurrection have happened fast even by the industry’s standards, and it would be safe to say that not everybody is on board.

Does the world really need an interlocking set of feature films and TV shows revolving around an IP that’s been sequelized, rebooted, followed up, remade, rebooted again, and then rebooted as a follow-up to the original? Based on the apathetic reactions to have greeted the news, it would appear to be a resounding “no.”

While winning bidders Miramax revealed it “couldn’t be more excited to bring Halloween to television,” the company is firmly in the minority for now. Realistically, where is there for the franchise left to go? It’s seen and done it all beyond crossing over with another noteworthy brand or heading into outer space, but maybe we shouldn’t say that out loud in case anybody gets any ideas.

The mask-wearing mass murderer might be one of horror’s most iconic characters ever, but that doesn’t mean we need to be inundated with new content that barely a single soul seems to be asking for.