9 Major Retcons That Saved Iconic Movie Franchises

9. Only The First Halloween Movie Happened - Halloween (2018)

The Halloween franchise's continuity is an absolute shambles. Or, perhaps more aptly, it was a shambles. What started off as a pretty straightforward slasher story continued to pile on the narrative developments, with Laurie and Michael Myers being revealed as brother and sister, Myers himself being the focus of a cult which used magic to make him murder, and at least two soft reboots which told you to ignore some things (but not everything) from the previous flicks.

In a sensible movie, the recent Halloween instalment decided to just put all that baggage to one side and pick up where the first movie left off. In this new timeline, Michael and Laurie aren't related, Michael himself is still human and he's spent the past 40 years locked up. By returning to the simplistic formula established by the first flick, the filmmakers were able to hone in on what made it so compelling in the first place. Consequently, Michael's mystique was recaptured, and Laurie Strode was given the strong follow-up storyline so many writers had tried and failed to give her before.

It's not the first movie in this franchise to make amends for past mistakes, and the inevitable sequels might ruin the mythology yet again, but for now, it's in the most promising place in decades.