As exciting as it is when original horror projects are announced, there’s a reason that franchises like Leprechaun and Candyman still carry a strong reputation in the genre. At one point, these two killers were set to square off in a crossover movie, furthering each franchise’s longevity, but this didn’t come to fruition.

Ever since the classical Universal monster movies and Godzilla films, there have been successful crossovers between horror franchises. Many of these projects were smaller in scale during the past, but it took the massive anticipation and success surrounding the release of Freddy vs. Jason to show modern horror audiences just how much fun there is in this premise. Even in recent years, Japanese cinema put together a crazy crossover between The Ring and The Grudge with Sadako vs. Kayako. This is clearly still a concept that gets audiences excited.

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Both the Leprechaun and Candyman franchises were popular during the ‘80s and ‘90s, but they haven’t had as much success in recent years. Granted, Jordan Peele is well underway with his revival of the Candyman franchise. There have also been regrettable, intermittent Leprechaun sequels every few years, but they’ve moved away from the campy charm of the original movies. Leprechaun and Candyman may not currently be at the height of their popularities, but during the early 2000s a very interesting proposal came forward that could have either reignited interest in the franchises or effectively killed them for good.

Leprechaun Vs. Candyman Almost Happened

After the success of 2003’s Freddy vs. Jason, studios were eager to capitalize on the success of this crossover horror madness. There were rumblings over a Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash and a Michael Myers vs. Pinhead, but one of the most bizarre pairings that actually got reasonably far along was a Leprechaun vs. Candyman film. The project got as far as a script coming forward to Tony Todd, who immediately put the kibosh on the project. Todd cited his immense love and respect for the character as the reason why he didn’t want to subject him to this crossover. He even brought up movies like Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein as earlier crossover examples that tarnish the legacy of beloved characters.

Tony Todd’s refusal makes a lot of sense, but it also comes as a relief because the project probably would have been a disaster. The only real reason that this crossover was considered in the first place is because both film series were currently owned by the same studio. Other than that, there’s absolutely no common ground between the Leprechaun movies and Candyman’s universe. The series have completely different tones, and the titular villains are even at totally different extremes when it comes to height. Fortunately, audiences never had to see if some victim would steal the Leprechaun’s gold and then say Candyman three times to make the iconic characters cross paths. It would have been an insane project, but it’s probably for the best that Leprechaun and Candyman remain in their own worlds.

Key Release Dates
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  • Candyman (2021)Release date: Aug 27, 2021
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About The Author


Daniel Kurland
(373 Articles Published)

Daniel Kurland is a freelance writer, comedian, and critic, who lives in the cultural mosaic that is Brooklyn, New York. Daniel’s work can be read on ScreenRant, Splitsider, Bloody Disgusting, Den of Geek, and across the Internet. He recently completed work on a noir anthology graphic novel titled, “Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Noir: A Rag of Bizarre Noir and Hard Boiled Tales” and he’s currently toiling away on his first novel.

Daniel knows that “Psycho II” is better than the original, that the finale of “How I Met Your Mother” doesn’t deserve the hate that it receives, and that Garth Ennis’ run of “Animal Man” may be the best superhero story of all time. He’s a fan of white grape juice and appreciates a good Fuji apple.

The owls are not what they seem.

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