The Nightmare Before Christmas Director Has An Intriguing Pitch For Tim Burton

As October creeps ever closer, the Halloween season is nearly at hand. Not only does this mean the return of costume parties and haunting home décor, but it also means it's prime time to kick off a spooky movie marathon. While one could watch them virtually any time of year, titles like "Halloween" and "Beetlejuice" are particularly fun to watch around the time of All Hallows Eve. Despite its title including an entirely different holiday, "The Nightmare Before Christmas" is one such film as well, seeing as it's packed with ghosts and ghouls and wrapped in Tim Burton's signature eerie aesthetic.

Released in 1993 and directed by Henry Selick, "The Nightmare Before Christmas" is one of the most widely-adored movies to ever grace the big screen. Year after year, fans witness Halloween Town's own Jack Skellington (Chris Sarandon) attempt to grasp the concept of Christmas to disastrous effect. However, even though the film has retained its popularity over the years, a cinematic sequel has yet to come to fruition for one reason or another. In this era of continuations, reboots, and revivals, it's surprising that such a near-universally desired production has yet to become a reality.

According to Henry Selick, in something of a pitch to Tim Burton, a "Nightmare Before Christmas" sequel could work if it took on this format.

The first issue to tackle when trying to figure out how to continue the story of "The Nightmare Before Christmas" is the format. How could such a project come together without potentially diluting the original? In the eyes of Henry Selick, the safest bet would be a short. "I think that Tim might be open to a short. It would have to be so refreshing...Such a new take to justify making a sequel, but a short makes good sense," Selick told Collider in a 2022 interview. With that, the next thing the team would have to explore is candidates to lead this hypothetical mini-sequel.

Of the many iconic characters to come out of "The Nightmare Before Christmas," Zero the dog is undoubtedly among the most popular. Throughout the film, he's consistently at Jack Skellington's side with a smile on his face and his jack-o-lantern nose alight, and fans couldn't love him more for it. Therefore, to Selick, he's the perfect character to star in the proposed "Nightmare Before Christmas" short sequel. If it were to come together, it could follow his day-to-day life as Halloween Town's resident ghostly canine. "Honestly, not making this into a series of shorts makes Zero sense," Selick adds.

Perhaps someday, a "Nightmare Before Christmas" continuation will come to pass. If it ultimately does, a string of Zero-centric shorts or even a single one isn't too bad of an idea.