A sequel to “Trick ‘r Treat” has been a long, long time coming. It was first announced all the way back in 2013, when Dougherty said he wanted to make a new installment every year, or every other year. “It would sort of just be a new batch of stories and characters.” It is very likely that the current script is quite different from Dougherty’s original idea for the sequel. Still, that won’t stop me from getting excited about Dougherty’s promise back in the day to further explore who and what Sam is. As the filmmaker said back in 2013, “We’ll be exploring Sam more and maybe getting into some back story of who and what he actually is.”
The lack of a sequel can be blamed in part on regime changes at Legendary Pictures, which produced the original. With the arrival of new executives, it is common to discard projects in development from the previous regime. It happens all the time, and it is never not unfortunate.
Of course, there’s also the fact that Dougherty has been quite busy since the release of the first “Trick ‘r Treat.” He made another holiday classic in “Krampus,” and he directed the massive “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” in the time since. Hopefully, the next title on his resume has the words “Trick” and “Treat” in it.