What’s this! Danny Elfman, the musical maestro who wrote The Nightmare Before Christmas’s catchy tunes (and lent Jack Skellington his singing voice), doesn’t have high hopes that we’ll ever get a sequel to the popular family movie.
In an interview with Comicbook.com, Elfman was asked whether there would ever be a potential Nightmare Before Christmas 2, and he shot the idea down very quickly. “I don’t think so,” Elfman said. “I think Tim has always felt that no, this is what it was.” While Elfman’s confident that we’ll never return to Halloweentown, that doesn’t mean he’s not up for a sequel.
“But you know, it wouldn’t totally shock me if he came back with… If he had a fresh take on it, I would certainly go for the ride with him,” he continued. “But he’s never expressed any interest in that. I think he felt like this was a pure thing and it was what it was and that to try to do sequels on it would, I think it’s just not inspired him. But I won’t ever speak for Tim. It’s his universe.”
At this point, it’s worth pointing out that while Burton’s fingerprints are all over Nightmare, he didn’t actually direct it. Henry Selick, the man behind almost every stop-motion movie you love, was the actual director. Burton was a producer and wrote the story (Caroline Thompson wrote the screenplay).
Now that we have got that out of the way. The spectre of a Nightmare sequel has reared its head a few times over the last two decades. In 2001 Disney wanted to make a sequel using new (for the time) CGI technology, but Burton managed to murder the idea in its infancy.
“I was always very protective of [The Nightmare Before Christmas], not to do sequels or things of that kind,” Burton told MTV. “You know, Jack visits Thanksgiving world or other kinds of things just because I felt the movie had a purity to it and the people that like it because it’s a mass-market kind of thing, it was important to kind of keep that purity of it.”
While we love Jack and the nightmares who live in Halloweentown, let’s leave this franchise in its coffin, OK? If you love Nightmare Before Christmas then check out our best Disney movies guide.