Halloween: What Happened To Laurie Strode’s Son, John

The Halloween franchise has been retconned a couple of times, and in one of those timelines, Laurie Strode had a son named John – but what happened to him? In 1978, John Carpenter changed the horror genre with Halloween, a slasher movie that introduced viewers to final girl Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and serial killer Michael Myers. Halloween wasn’t well-received when it was released, but it’s now considered one of the best horror movies ever and credited as one of the movies that helped develop and popularize the slasher genre in the 1980s.

Halloween follows the story of Michael Myers, who after killing his sister when he was six-years-old, was sent to Smith’s Grove sanitarium. Fifteen years later, Michael escaped and returned to his hometown Haddonfield, Illinois, where he began to stalk Laurie and her friends. As the franchise evolved, Laurie was given a daughter, Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris), introduced in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, and who became the new protagonist as Laurie was killed between Halloween 2 and Halloween 4 (Halloween III: Season of the Witch is not part of the Michael Myers storyline). The first retcon happened in 1998 with Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, which brought Laurie back and left Jamie Lloyd aside, instead giving Laurie a son.

Halloween H20 ignored all the movies that came after Halloween 2, meaning that in this timeline, Laurie and Michael are still siblings. It’s explained that Laurie faked her own death so she could hide from Michael and live a normal life, which she did for many years, under the identity of Keri Tate. Laurie became a teacher and had a son, John (Josh Harnett), who attended the school she worked at. Michael found out all about Laurie’s new life and whereabouts and went after her, killing John’s friends in the process. Ultimately, Laurie managed to get John and his girlfriend, Molly (Michelle Williams), to safety but decided to get rid of Michael on her own. She stole the coroner’s van he was loaded into and decapitated him, but the sequel, Halloween: Resurrection, revealed that it was not Michael who she killed, and so she was sent to a psychiatric hospital, where she was killed by him. Halloween: Resurrection gave closure to Laurie’s arc, but it failed to follow-up with her son, who didn’t show up in the movie.

Instead, Halloween: Resurrection focused on a new group of victims, completely unrelated to Laurie and her family. Hartnett’s character was originally planned to return in a sequel to Resurrection so he could avenge his mother’s death, but the critical backlash and low box office numbers ultimately killed those plans, with the next installment in the franchise being Rob Zombie’s Halloween in 2007. John’s fate hasn’t been addressed, and as Michael didn’t even track him down, instead going after a group of strangers, it’s generally assumed that he was sent far away from Haddonfield, so he could carry on with his life without having to worry about his uncle going after him.

When a new Halloween movie was announced, many fans were hoping to see John or, at least, were expecting an explanation on what happened to him, but the 2018 movie ignores all Halloween sequels completely, meaning that neither Jamie Lloyd nor John ever existed. John’s fate is one of the biggest loose threads the Halloween retcons have left, but ultimately, that leaves it open to interpretation, so fans can decide what happened to John in the H20/Resurrection timeline.

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Adrienne Tyler
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Adrienne Tyler is a features writer for Screen Rant. She is an Audiovisual Communication graduate who wanted to be a filmmaker, but life had other plans (and it turned out great). Prior to Screen Rant, she wrote for Pop Wrapped, 4 Your Excitement (4YE), and D20Crit, where she was also a regular guest at Netfreaks podcast. She was also a contributor for FanSided’s BamSmackPow and 1428 Elm. Adrienne is very into films and she enjoys a bit of everything: from superhero films to heartbreaking dramas, to low-budget horror films. Every time she manages to commit to a TV show without getting bored, an angel gets its wings.

When she’s not writing, you can find her trying to learn a new language, watching hockey (go Avs!), or wondering what life would have been like had Pushing Daisies, Firefly, and Limitless not been cancelled. Breakfast food is life and coffee is what makes the world go round.

Guillermo del Toro said “hi” to her once. It was great.

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