We had the opportunity to sit down in a roundtable interview with various members of the Halloween Kills film team and some of the information provided teased not only the thought process behind making Halloween Kills but also some tantalizing clues about the final film in the trilogy.

Halloween Kills picks up directly where the first one ended, as Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) and crew are fleeing the burning house while firemen rush to put out the blaze. From here, the horror and the trauma that’s gripped the Strode family has now been fully unleashed on the world of Haddonfield, and that makes Halloween Kills a bit more macro. “This is a movie about everyone else’s trauma,” Jamie Lee Curtis began. “This is a movie about the collateral damage. The concentric circles of trauma and grief and rage and violence that have been perpetrated on by Michael to this entire town.” Because Evil has been unleashed, “everything is amplified. He has transcended…He is next level angry and violent.”

With Halloween Kills’ focus on the entire town of Haddonfield instead of the more Strode-focused Halloween (2018), this meant bringing back characters from the original Halloween (1978) to see how the trauma has affected them, as well. Anthony Michael Hall took on the role of Tommy Doyle and his excitement to act along the returning cast was through the roof. “Dude, I was just pumped from day one,” he said. “When this came up two and a half years ago, I had the privilege of meeting with David (the director) before my screen test and then I screen tested and I went all in. I tried to rev myself up and do my thing … Honestly, in my whole career, this is my 45th year—I started when I was 8 years old—man, I’ve never been more excited about a movie or a role that I’ve done.” His excitement was palpable and Anthony seemed so down-to-earth and incredibly excited to be included. He even complimented my Jeff Goldblum/The Fly shirt. That’s just the kind of guy he seems to be.

Andi Matichak had a similar humbling experience with being part of the long-running saga. She talked about how much of an honor it was to be involved with the franchise, but not only that, “…but being in a chapter that includes Jamie Lee and John Carpenter is a whole other thing. It’s pretty unique and special to have this kind of bestowed upon me, just on a personal level.” Jamie Lee mentioned that Alyson is kind of the Laurie of this film and Andi continued down that line of thinking, focusing on her character’s growth in the two films: “I think that Jamie is right that Alyson is Laurie in so many ways…in [the 1978 Halloween], we didn’t get to see Laurie grow up a little bit, but with these films we’re kind of seeing Alyson and what “what would be” in a different world. It’s a pretty interesting dynamic to be so young and pick up the torch in a way that makes your grandmother proud and that you do it right.”

But Jamie Lee Curtis has some insight into the final third in the new trilogy and offered up some intriguing and tantalizing bits of information about Halloween Ends. When asked how important it was to know Laurie’s course throughout the three films, Jamie Lee paused for a moment:

“The first thing you have to know,” Jamie Lee said, “and I know people are sort of surprised…I had no idea we were making a second movie. We were doing ADR (automated dialogue replacement) on the Sony lot…and [David Gordon Green] said, ‘so we’re going to do another movies. It’s a triology and here’s what the second one’s going to be,’ and then he told me the story. And then he sort of alluded to the third one, which is going to shock people. It’s going to make people very angry. It’s going to stimulate people. People are going to be agitated by it. And it is a beautiful way to end this trilogy.”

Halloween Kills hits Theaters and Peacock on October 15th.