Laurie Strode came back from the dead in 2018’s Halloween, Blumhouse’s semi-reboot that wiped away everything but the 1978 original. This allowed Jamie Lee Curtis to provide one of her best performances in the franchise to date, as an older, hardened Laurie. Thankfully, she survived facing off against Michael Myers yet again in that movie and she’ll be back for next year’s Halloween Kills. This time, though, she won’t be the main character of the piece.
In Total Film’s preview of the sequel, which was only recently delayed until October 2021, star Judy Greer – who plays Laurie’s daughter Karen – revealed that Curtis won’t serve as the lead in Kills. Laurie will, however, remain its “emotional core.” Greer added: “She’s a voice of both insight and reason that is trying to give a volatile community some sense of purpose in this film.”
As the actress says, Kills will explore Haddonfield descending into mob rule as the townsfolk react to The Shape stalking their streets. In a surprising development, young Allyson (Andi Matichak), Laurie’s granddaughter, will become “Haddonfield’s pitchfork-wielding ringleader,” It will be up to Karen, who’s dealt with her mother’s PTSD all her life, to try and calm her daughter down and appeal to her better angels.
By the sounds of it, then, this next installment will focus on the two other Strode women over Laurie, while the character recuperates in Haddonfield Memorial Hospital for most of the runtime, similar to 1981’s original Halloween II. If this is less of a Laurie-focused film, that’ll likely mean she has a major role in direct sequel Halloween Ends, which is set to conclude the Laurie/Michael saga for good.
All these teases about the sequel are definitely making it harder to sit through the long wait until Halloween Kills gets here on October 15th next year, but hopefully it’ll be worth it in the end.