Last week, Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Productions dropped a pretty exciting newsbomb: two new Halloween sequels will be released in 2020 and 2021, titled Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends. The films will see the return of director/co-writer David Gordon Green and writer Danny McBride, who were the architects of 2018’s successful Halloween sequel. That movie saw the return of Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode, who banded together with her daughter (Judy Greer) and granddaughter (Andi Matichak) to fight off the return of Michael Myers.

Given that they were just announced, not much is known about these two sequels, so when Collider’s own Christina Radish spoke with Green and McBride at the HBO panel at today’s TCA’s in anticipation of their new HBO comedy series The Righteous Gemstones, she asked the two about their Halloween sequels plans. First and foremost, Green confirmed our previous report that filming begins this September and they’ll be shooting the films back-to-back:

“We stat in September [and shoot them back-to-back] with a breather between. But they’ll be out in two consecutive years, in 2020 and 2021. You get a breather this year, and then, for the next two years, it’s gonna be crazy.”

McBride revealed that the story that runs through Halloween Ends was concocted when they came up with the story for 2018’s Halloween:

“That was our plan. Relaunching it for just one, we wanted it to have a bigger story. We were originally going to even shoot them back to back, but as soon as we got it up and running, we took a look at ourselves and were like, ‘You know what? We should make sure we can do one of them good, before we bite off trying to do three of them.’ So, we just put all of our efforts into trying to make the first one land. There was talk, right away, of us doing more of these. We just needed to get everybody aligned and see if everybody was down with the vision. Luckily, everyone is.”

Green adds that after the release of Halloween, they realized they had enough story for two additional sequels, not just one:

“We had ambitions of doing two, with some big ideas, and then decided that we should see if anybody liked one at a time, and if they liked the other one, then maybe we’d build on it. And then, when that was successful, our additional ideas that weren’t integrated into that first one developed into two. We’ve written them, and we’re ready to go.”

As for how Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends will differ from the 2018 film, McBride says neither movie reinvents the franchise, and the sequels serve more as continuations. So, no druids (we hope):

“It’s just a continuation of it. It’s telling the story, moving forward. It’s not another reinvention, or anything like that. It’s this world that we’ve established, and then it continues beyond the events of the first one.”

Although Green does say the two films will be “strong, different narratives,” so it does sound as though there will be some distinction between the three movies.

As for that title “Halloween Ends” and whether Green and McBride intend to conclude the horror franchise once and for all, McBride admits that only one person can really put an end to Halloween:

“I think, ultimately, Michael Myers is such an iconic character that no one besides Carpenter is ever gonna have ownership over him. This will be our chance at the table to play with these characters, and I’m sure that, when we’re done, other people will come in and do the same thing, or have their own reinvention. Michael Myers is iconic enough to allow that, too. He’s like James Bond, where you can have different actors and different filmmakers. He represents something so simple and scary that he can be translated by lots of different people.”

That said, Green says Halloween Ends is intended to bring their three-film arc for Laurie Strode and Michael Myers to a conclusion:

“They’re never done telling the Frankenstein story, and at this point, Michael Myers is a classic movie monster. But our Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode/Michael Myers saga will be done. The fun of it is also seeing it end and knowing that it can. If you just keep trying to elongate it and milk it for all of the money, then that’s boring.”

Look for our full interviews with Green and McBride on Collider soon. Halloween Kills opens in theaters on October 16, 2020 and Halloween Ends opens in theaters on October 15, 2021.