A Guide To The Many Returning Characters In Halloween Kills

In 2018, the Halloween franchise went in a new direction with a much-anticipated sequel that was simply titled Halloween. This film, the eleventh in the franchise overall (including two films in a remake continuity from writer/director Rob Zombie), chose to take a different path from its predecessors, establishing a world in which none of the previous sequels actually counted. In this new timeline, the filmmakers were allowed to set the stage for a confrontation 40 years in the making, and they produced a film that was a nostalgic mirror for John Carpenter and Debra Hill's 1978 original.

In an effort to further build on the nostalgia of it all, the upcoming sequels — Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends — will shed more light on how that one horrific night in 1978 changed the town of Haddonfield, Illinois, forever, and that means plenty of characters from the original Halloween will get to come home at last. If you're wondering who all these new people are and what their history is with the franchise (including some stuff that's now retconned), here's our breakdown of every original Halloween character who's returning for Halloween Kills. 

Note: For the sake of clarity, we're limiting the character histories in this list to the films only, and we're leaving out any developments that may have taken place in spinoff media, including comics.

We all know the story of Halloween 1978, but let's take a brief look back at the events of Halloween 2018 just to be clear where we are at this point in Haddonfield history. In 2018, after 40 years in custody, Michael Myers escaped via a bus crash and returned to Haddonfield to murder Laurie Strode, who'd spent the last four decades preparing for her would-be killer's return. 

Michael made his way through Haddonfield in no great hurry, killing people in their homes and even pursuing Laurie's granddaughter, Allyson, before finally coming upon Laurie's fortified and secluded house. After a vicious fight that claimed the life of several Haddonfield sheriff deputies and Laurie's son-in-law, Ray, Michael had to fight three generations of Strode women, who forced him into the basement of Laurie's house and set the whole home ablaze. 

While this seemingly killed Michael, longtime fans of the franchise know that "the Shape" doesn't go down that easily, and in July 2019, it was announced that two sequels — Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends — would close out this version of the Laurie Strode/Michael Myers saga. Jamie Lee Curtis will return as Laurie, alongside Judy Greer as her daughter Karen and Andi Matichak as her granddaughter Allyson, and Halloween Kills will arrive in theaters October 16, 2020. 

Even by slasher movie standards, Halloween has a complicated continuity. The first two films — 1978's Halloween and 1981's Halloween II — took place on the same night in 1978, and they chronicled Michael Myers' rampage through Haddonfield on Halloween, all leading up to his apparent death. And, oh yeah, in part two, we also learned that Michael and Laurie were siblings. 

The third film, Halloween III: Season of the Witch, didn't follow the Michael story at all, and it had a completely unrelated plot. Fortunately, Michael returned for Halloween installments four, five, and six, and those films established a continuity in which Laurie Strode was killed in a car accident, leaving behind a daughter named Jamie Lloyd who was stalked by Michael. These movies also wove in a supernatural explanation for Michael's crimes and his seeming immortality. 

Halloween H20: 20 Years Later restored Laurie Strode to the franchise, ignoring the previous three installments in the series and presenting a scenario in which she'd faked her death and assumed a new name. In this film, Laurie was living in California as Keri Tate, and Michael hunted her down when he learned this information. Michael and Laurie met one more time in Halloween: Resurrection, where Michael finally succeeded in killing his sister, seemingly ending their saga. 

But in 2018, director David Gordon Green and writer Danny McBride released Halloween, which retconned all previous sequels to the original film (and, of course, ignored the Rob Zombie remakes entirely). Even Halloween II was scourged from the story, thus removing the brother-sister dynamic between Laurie and Michael and giving us the new timeline we now find ourselves in.

Tommy Doyle has perhaps the most complex history of any character in the Halloween franchise who isn't named Laurie Strode or Michael Myers. He first appeared in the original 1978 film as a local Haddonfield boy who was bullied at school and had a healthy fear of the Boogeyman. On Halloween night 1978, Laurie Strode was babysitting for Tommy when Michael Myers attacked the house. Tommy was terrified, particularly since he saw Michael before Laurie did, and Laurie didn't believe him at first. 

Tommy later returned briefly in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, and he was a major character (played by Paul Rudd) in Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers. In his 20s, that version of Tommy was obsessed with Michael Myers and his apparent drive to kill every member of his family, and he played a key role in confronting the psycho slasher.

Because Tommy was played by Rudd in Halloween 6, many fans hoped that if he returned, Rudd would return with him. That won't be the case, though. It was revealed in August 2019 that The Dead Zone and The Breakfast Club star Anthony Michael Hall will play a new version of Tommy in Halloween Kills.

Like Tommy Doyle, Lindsey Wallace was a young child in Haddonfield who was caught up in the chaos of Halloween night 1978, because her babysitter was among the young women stalked by Michael Myers. Laurie Strode's friend, Annie Brackett, was babysitting Lindsey that night until she dropped Lindsey off at the Doyle house, so Laurie could take care of her while Annie went to pick up her boyfriend. After dropping Lindsey off, Annie was murdered by Michael in her car, and when Michael came for Laurie, Lindsey fled the Doyle house with Tommy. 

Lindsey appeared again briefly in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, but she was never roped into the movie mythos in the same way that Tommy Doyle was. Now, she'll get a chance to revisit the story. In September 2019, it was revealed that Lindsey will return for Halloween Kills, and she'll be played by original Halloween 1978 actress Kyle Richards.

Lonnie Elam is a character that looms large in the Halloween franchise more by reputation than by anything we actually see him do on-screen ... at least so far. Lonnie appeared in the original 1978 film as one of the kids who bullied Tommy Doyle by pushing him down on top of his own pumpkin and taunting him with threats that the Boogeyman will get him. In response to this, Laurie Strode told Tommy that Lonnie probably "won't get out of the sixth grade." Later in the film, Lonnie approached the porch of the Myers house on a dare, only to be scared away by the voice of Dr. Sam Loomis. 

In Halloween 2018, we learned that while Laurie's promise that he wouldn't get far in school might not have been true, Lonnie has had a string of trouble that have earned him quite a reputation. In the film, Laurie's son-in-law, Ray Nelson, recalled doing drugs with Lonnie as a teenager, and the Elam family's troubles with the law were evidently well-known throughout the community. Lonnie's son, Cameron, dated Laurie Strode's granddaughter, Allyson, in Halloween 2018, but they broke up when she discovered he was cheating on her. 

Lonnie will make his return in Halloween Kills, and he'll be played by Robert Longstreet.

Nurse Marion Chambers has played a crucial part of Halloween lore, particularly when it comes to the now-retconned reveal that Laurie Strode was Michael Myers' younger sister. Nurse Chambers' history in the franchise dates back to the opening minutes of the first film, when Michael pulled her out of her car and stole it so he could make his way to Haddonfield. In Halloween II, Marion was responsible for the unsealed file that revealed Laurie was Michael's sister, and she was the one who broke that news to Dr. Sam Loomis as Michael continued his rampage in Haddonfield. 

Marion appeared again in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, where we learned that she was the keeper of secret documents that contained Laurie's new assumed name and location. Michael broke into her house to get those files, and then murdered her. However, in October 2019, it was revealed that original Halloween star Nancy Stephens, who's played Chambers in all three of her film appearances, will once again return to the role in Halloween Kills.

Sheriff Leigh Brackett was one of the crucial characters moving the plot forward in 1978's Halloween. After Michael Myers escaped custody and made his way toward Haddonfield, Dr. Sam Loomis teamed up with Brackett in an effort to intercept Michael before he could kill anyone. They were unsuccessful, through Brackett was unknowingly on Michael's trail when he investigated a hardware store robbery during Halloween day. Later that night, as Brackett patrolled the town, Michael murdered the sheriff's daughter, Annie, who was on her way to pick up her boyfriend during an evening of babysitting. 

Sheriff Brackett returned for Halloween II with a more limited role, and he spent a large portion of that film mourning his daughter's death. In the original timeline, he retired as sheriff shortly after Annie's murder, and while he's not present in any capacity in Halloween 2018, that doesn't mean he's retired in this timeline. In October 2019, a photo from the Halloween Kills set surfaced, and it showed original actor Charles Cyphers in a sheriff's uniform, revealing that Sheriff Brackett will indeed be back for the sequel.

In the original Halloween series timeline, Halloween II took place on the same night as Halloween 1978, and it followed Laurie Strode as she headed to the hospital to be treated for her wounds. As the night unfolded, Michael Myers followed Laurie to what's supposed to be the safe haven of Haddonfield Memorial Hospital, where he began to wreak havoc on the staff. Some of Michael's most famous kills, including a scalding death in a therapeutic tub, took place in this portion of the franchise. In other words, Haddonfield Memorial Hospital looms as a character all its own thanks to Halloween II.

Now, it seems the new continuity will also enshrine that location as a place of terror. Set photos from Halloween Kills arrived in October 2019, confirming that Haddonfield Memorial Hospital will once again play a role in Halloween Kills. Remember, even though they took place on the same night, Halloween II is no longer considered to be in the same continuity as Halloween, which means the rest of that night in 1978 is fair game for the new film. We could end up seeing a flashback, or we could see the Strode family arriving at the hospital after the events of Halloween 2018. Either way, it's back.

The Halloween 2018 timeline wiped the sequels from its particular continuity, which leaves Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends with free rein to use as much or as little of the expanded mythology established by that first film as it wants. With that in mind, though, Halloween 1978 is a relatively intimate film, and a great many of its characters wind up dead by the end. So, how many other original characters can the sequel continuity possibly bring back?

Well, depending on how far the creators want to go, there could be more than you think. If we're talking about people present in the film whose lives were directly touched by the murders, there were two classmates of Laurie's — Paul Freedman and Ben Tramer — who were never seen on-screen but who nevertheless had a role to play. Paul was Annie's boyfriend, and she was on her way to pick him up the night she was murdered. Ben was Laurie's crush, and he was possibly one of the last people to speak to Annie before her death, as she attempted to play matchmaker for her friend. With that in mind, both men could still show up in the sequel series as people who still live in Haddonfield and still have a very strong memory of that night.