Sam will return! Tonight, at a special screening of the cult horror classic Trick ‘r Treat, the news the film’s fans have been hoping for was finally delivered – the sequel is indeed on its way.

Trick 'r Treat 2 is a real thing!

Trick 'r Treat writer/director Michael Dougherty was there for the post-screening Q&A, along with producer Bryan Singer and several cast members from the original film – Brian Cox (“Mr. Kreeg”), Dylan Baker (“Steven”), Quinn Lord (“Sam”) and Jean-Luc Bilodeau (“Schrader”). It happened to be Dougherty’s birthday, which was mentioned by moderator Seth Green at the beginning of the Q&A, as a cake with a Sam figure was brought out and the audience sang “Happy Birthday.” Then, near the end of the Q&A, Green went to audience questions – only to be interrupted by Sam, or at least someone dressed as Sam (albeit lager then the small child-sized Sam in the film). This Sam gave Dougherty a birthday card, which we were told asked if we could please get a Trick ‘r Treat sequel.Said Dougherty, “I'd like to. I don't have the authority.” Green asked who did have that authority, and Dougherty replied, “Thomas Tull, head of Legendary,” indicating Tull was in the audience. Tull then was asked to stand up and when asked if we could get a Trick r’ Treat sequel replied, “I'm not saying no to Sam, so...”And with that, the Trick ‘r Treat 2 title came up on screen behind the panelists, to big cheers from the crowd.Just a few minutes before the screening, I spoke to Bryan Singer about the enduring popularity of Trick ‘r Treat. The film’s history is somewhat infamous, with distributor Warner Bros. deciding to not give it the originally intended theatrical release and instead releasing it straight to DVD and Blu-ray, after shelving it for a couple of years. Of course, as time has gone on the film’s popularity has grown and grown as more people have discovered it through word of mouth and Singer told me at this point, Trick 'r Treat has indeed made back its money.Keeping the secret that was going to be revealed a couple of hours later, Singer was coy when I asked him about the chances for a sequel, simply replying, “I think there definitely is a chance, absolutely.”When I asked Singer about Dougherty’s initial ideas about how Trick ‘r Treat could be a franchise, Singer told me, “I think with the character of Sam. I think he really loved that character. He's a very unique character. He embodies the essence of Halloween, which is something that’s very important to Mike. So I think he always knew that Sam would have a life even beyond the movie, or beyond this movie, and so far it has - the merchandising, little animations, all this stuff.”Dougherty confirms to EW he will again be writing and directing the sequel, but that he has not begun work on the script yet and that it's too early to reveal any plot details - except for the one Singer alluded to, remarking, "I can definitely say that we’ll be exploring Sam more and maybe getting into some back story of who and what he actually is."Asked if Trick 'r Treat 2 will get the theatrical release the first film was denied, he replies, "I mean, fingers crossed it will have a theatrical release considering the adventure that the first one took, but I guess if it didn’t have a theatrical release, the first film also proved that you don’t need a theatrical release in order to be successful. Not anymore. This film became the hit that it became because of video on demand and because of Amazon and Netflix and all those new technologies that people have embraced. It was because of that that this film found its audience."