Danny Elfman has joined Tim Burton in destroying dreams of a Nightmare Before Christmas sequel.
The composer supplied the music, certain voices, and Jack Skellington’s singing for Henry Selick’s 1993 holiday classic. While producer Burton has long been the Grinch of sequel talks, Elfman shared his own similar sentiments in an interview with ComicBook. “I don’t think so,” he said when asked about a Nightmare Before Easter, Nightmare Before Thanksgiving, or other potential sequel, spinoff, or offshoot. “I think Tim has always felt that no, this is what it was.”
Although there are non-cinematic sequels (a video game and an upcoming young adult novel), Burton has been adamant about keeping Nightmare contained.
Many people do appreciate the purity of a single, non-exploited Nightmare, but others have enough trust in Burton’s genius to let him expand Skellington’s world if he wants to, as Elfman explained.
“If he had a fresh take on it, I would certainly go for the ride with him. But he’s never expressed any interest in that. I think he felt like this was a pure thing and it was what it was and that to try to do sequels on it would, I think it’s just not inspired him. But I won’t ever speak for Tim. It’s his universe.”
Elfman recently admitted that he doesn’t buy into any talk of a Beetlejuice sequel, either, and as one of Burton’s most famed, trusted, and tenured collaborators, you’d imagine he’d be let in on the ground floor were things to change.