Halloween 2018: What happened to Laurie’s son (Josh Hartnett)?

Having apparently cast Judy Greer in the role of Laurie Strode’s daughter in 2018’s Halloween, many fans are wondering what became of her son from H20.

With Jamie Lee Curtis officially signing on to appear in next year’s Haloween reboot, Oct. 19, 2018 will be the night SHE came home!

Just in case you haven’t heard the news yet, I’ll fill you in. Curtis is reprising her role as Laurie Strode from the Halloween series for an all new film coming out next year. 40 years after the release of the original flick from the amazing John Carpenter, Laurie will be battling Michael Myers one last time.

Of course, having Laurie return does bring with it lots of questions. Especially with the recent news of Judy Greer being tapped to be Laurie’s daughter, I keep seeing this one in particular: what about her son? By that we mean Josh Hartnett’s character in Halloween H20, in which he played Laurie’s teenage son John. “Is Josh Hartnett coming back as well?” I keep seeing people ask.

Here’s the blunt answer to that question: NO. Hartnett is not returning, at least not to reprise the role of John. They’re setting this new film as a direct sequel to Halloween II, meaning the other sequels in the series had to be thrown out. This includes both H20 and Resurrection, as the latter film even kills off Laurie in its opening scene. Tossing these sequels out of the new film’s continuity does save Laurie, letting the writers use her again — but it also means that, in our new timeline, John no longer exists.

via Universal Pictures

This is pretty much what happened to John.

Big fans of H20 may be a little disappointed about this retcon. But it’s a necessary sacrifice to bring Laurie back. This way, the character can have a proper ending to her story, rather than the awful way they wrote her off in Resurrection. This is one do-over I’m definitely OK with.

Next: Halloween 6 writer reveals insane original ending

All we really know about the plot at this point is that Curtis is coming back as Laurie 40 years after the killing spree that occurred on the night of the first two films from Carpenter. Danny McBride and David Gordon Green are co-writing the script, with Green also serving as director. Carpenter is likely to score the film in addition to his role as executive producer.

Halloween will premiere in theaters on  Oct. 19, 2018.