Halloween Ends director addresses a controversial Michael Myers decision

Warning: The following contains spoilers for Halloween Ends! Turn back now if you haven't seen the movie yet!

Halloween Ends features the final showdown between Michael Myers and Laurie Strode – so it might take you by surprise that the Shape isn't really the focus of the movie. Instead, new character Corey Cunningham takes center stage, with Michael not coming into play until later in the movie. Director David Gordon Green has explained why the decision to hold Michael back was made.

"It's still a controversy today. I just watched the movie outside of a technical format, meaning in a sound mix or a color correction, for the first time two days ago. We really just finished this movie. [Laughs] So two days ago, and I'm watching it and I'm like, 'We're asking a lot,'" he told Collider of the choice to reintroduce Michael later in the movie.

"But then when we were in the editing room and we would do [it] differently, it felt wrong. And so if you don't have an intuition, if you don't have a vision, you shouldn't be making this movie," he continued. "And I think there's obvious challenges and things that you would bring to discussion with editors, with producers and say, 'This is what feels right,' and at a point we all just looked at each other and said, 'We're taking a big risk here, but it does feel right and we know we're getting into. Let's go for it.'"

Corey becomes something like Michael's protégé in the movie, learning how to kill from the Shape – and potentially even absorbing some of the boogeyman's evilness and seemingly indestructible nature, too. It's through Corey that we're eventually reintroduced to Michael, who's been hiding in the sewers since the events of Halloween Kills.

Halloween Ends is in theaters and is streaming on Peacock now. If you're all caught up, check out our guide to all the upcoming major movie release dates coming soon to plan your next theater trip, and for much more on the movie, see our guide to the Halloween Ends ending explained.

I'm the Deputy Entertainment Editor here at GamesRadar+, covering all things film and TV for the site's Total Film and SFX sections. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English.