Since its initial release in 2007, the fable of Trick ‘r Treat has amassed a considerable following, and Michael Dougherty’s anthology of seasonal tales has become a celebrated staple of horror during the holidays. At the heart of the franchise is Sam, an authentic Halloween symbol that has spawned a plethora of toys, costumes, and decorations, which can be found in abundance in stores such as Spirit Halloween every October.
Even though the universe of Trick ‘r Treat has been explored through different comic books, fans have yet to receive the highly anticipated sequel that they have been patiently waiting for over a decade and a half. Every October, it has become customary to inquire about the progress of the project, with Dougherty announcing at Beyond Fest just last year that Trick ‘r Treat 2 was in “very active development” during that time.
A year has passed and Halloween is less than a week away. Just as Santa Claus appears in the early hours of Christmas morning, Dougherty has emerged once again with a new update.
The latest update from Collider has arrived, courtesy of Michael Dougherty himself. During a Q&A session following a screening over the weekend, Collider’s Perri Nemiroff received the scoop straight from the source.
“I will say this, because we said it last year at the Beyond Fest screening, the sequel is in active development with Legendary,” Dougherty again confirms.
He continues, “I’ll go so far as to say that we have several drafts of a script. I brought back the same storyboard artist I mentioned before, Simeon Wilkins, so we have a stack of storyboards and a good fat stack of concept art done by Breehn Burns as well. So it’s inching along,”
“I’m hoping to talk to Legendary,” Dougherty adds. “They’ve been wonderful, like great collaborators. But so much of it is timing, and as you know, we just got out of a strike, so the next step, fingers crossed, would be looking at budget, of course, schedule, and all the rest. But we have a really, really great script for a sequel. And I brought in my co-writer from Krampus to do it with me. So Zach Shields and Todd Casey also helped me write Trick ‘r Treat Part 2.”
