Will We Ever Get a ‘Nightmare Before Christmas 2’?

These days, there are sequels to every genre of successful movies. Horror, comedy, action, it doesn’t matter; have a good opening weekend and Hollywood is quick to announce another. It’s just now it seems that we’re finally getting sick of sequels, but don’t expect the uninspired sequel train to stop anytime soon.

Sometimes, however, a movie comes along so original and meaningful to those who love it, that to disturb it with a follow-up risks tainting the legacy of what came before. Do you really remember what happens in movies like RoboCop 2, Dumb and Dumber To, The Hangover Part II, or Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, just to name a few? To leave an iconic film untouched keeps its status intact. While the Back to the Future movies are technically a trilogy, we treat them as a sacred collection. Furthermore, no one, not even the franchise’s biggest fans, wants a fourth entry. It wouldn’t be right. In the 1990s came another film that meant a lot to those who loved it, but never got a sequel. The Nightmare Before Christmas was a huge hit in 1993, but will we ever see Jack Skellington (Danny Elfman and Chris Sarandon), Sally (Catherine O’Hara), or Oogie Boogie (Ken Page) again?

‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ Is an Original Masterpiece

Tim Burton had success after success throughout the 1980s and into the 90s. His first five times in the director’s chair all resulted in classics: Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Batman, Edward Scissorhands, and Batman Returns. His next film, Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas, would have his name in the title, and while he was a producer and crucial in its development, it was Henry Selick who was the director (and subsequently doesn’t get the credit he deserves).

The Nightmare Before Christmas stood out due to its use of stop-motion animation, a rarity for a full-length feature film. While Burton may not have been at the helm, it feels like a Tim Burton movie, full of dark colors and whimsy. It tells the story of Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloweentown, a bizarre and scary fantastical world. After accidentally stumbling into Christmastown, he decides to improve Christmas by becoming Santa and having the real Saint Nick kidnapped. Santa is instead taken by a boogeyman named Oogie Boogie, and now Jack, who means well despite his failures, has to fight to save Santa Claus.

The Nightmare Before Christmas came out in the United States on October 29, 1993, a perfect release date for a film that might have Christmas in the title, but is anything but the light magical fun of that holiday. The Nightmare Before Christmas is darker, without being an all-out horror film. It’s a spectacle, a first foray into magic and horror for kids, and even a film their parents loved. With its odd characters, striking visuals, and musical elements, the film made $91 million worldwide. With such an open-ended world where anything felt possible, a sequel seemed perfect, but three decades later, one has never happened.

Why Tim Burton Said No to a ‘Nightmare Before Christmas’ Sequel

Say what you will about the latter part of Tim Burton’s career, as many think he’s directed way too many reboots (was Planet of the Apes, Alice in Wonderland, Dumbo, or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory necessary?), but he’s never been a man given to making sequels for an easy buck. Yes, there was Batman Returns, but until this year with Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Burton has been a director who leaves his creations alone. Still, the temptation for a sequel to The Nightmare Before Christmas had to be there, with so much of that world left unexplored. What else was there in Halloweentown? What about towns for Thanksgiving, New Year’s, the Fourth of July? What other stories could be told?

One reason a sequel never happened is just because Burton wasn’t feeling it. In a 2006 interview with MTV, he said:

“I was always very protective, not to do sequels or things of that kind. You know, ‘Jack visits Thanksgiving world’ or other kinds of things … I felt the movie had a purity to it and the people that like it. Because it’s not a mass-market kind of thing, it was important to kind of keep that purity of it.”

But there is more to it than that. Even if Burton was itching to get back into the world of The Nightmare Before Christmas, he would still be reluctant due to the unimaginative ways of Disney. Director Henry Selick told Collider last year that sequel talk has come up several times, but Disney always said, “‘But it will have to be CG.’ And that was a non-starter for me. It certainly was for Tim Burton.” A CGI sequel would have been a disappointing disaster, with all the charm and wonder taken out and replaced by computers.

Though it looks like a true feature film sequel to The Nightmare Before Christmas is a long shot, it does still live on in other ways. There have been several video games over the years. Gameloft’s Disney Magic Kingdom: This Is Halloween in 2016 has Jack Skellington helping Mickey Mouse plan a Halloween party. Before that were two more intricate games. In 2005, The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Pumpkin King came out for the Gameboy Advance. The game is a prequel to the movie, with Oogie Boogie kidnapping Sally, and the heroic Jack Skellington having to save her and Halloweentown. The same year was The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie’s Revenge, released to PlayStation 2 and XBOX. This game is the closest we’ve ever gotten to a true sequel as it takes place after the film’s events. In the game, Oogie takes over Halloweentown and Jack has to fight back to defeat him and his minions.

There have been books as well. An interesting one, a young adult novel called Long Live the Pumpkin Queen, released last year, takes place after the events of the movie, and is told from Sally’s point-of-view. Jack and Sally are now married, but when a new villain comes to Halloweentown, it’s time for Sally to be the hero this time. This year, a graphic novel, The Battle for Pumpkin King, comes out. It’s a prequel with Jack and Oogie battling to be the Pumpkin King.

‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ Sequel Will Never Happen

Tim Burton’s career has been on a downswing in recent years, but this year marked a big comeback when he made Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, a sequel to one of his most popular movies. While fans had longed to see a follow-up to his 1988 classic, it was probably smart that Burton resisted the temptation for decades. We’ve seen with so many sequels how the desire to cash in on nostalgia can go wrong. No matter how much we might like a certain movie, returning k to it seldom works because it’s nearly impossible to recapture the previous magic. Beetlejuice is pure ’80s craziness, a product of its times, so to make a sequel felt like a crash grab that wouldn’t pay off. But in 2024, Burton finally took the risk after 36 years. It paid off in more ways than one. Both critics and fans loved it, receiving a very respectable 76% Tomatometer rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and was a hit at the box office. Legacy sequels often have good weekends, as a curious public turns out, only to drop off significantly. That’s not what happened with Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Good word of mouth led to more people seeing it after the first weekend, leading to a most impressive $294 million haul domestically alone.

Was Beetlejuice Beetlejuice as good as the original? Of course not. That was an impossible task, so instead of trying to recreate the original film, Tim Burton decided to tell a new story. While Michael Keaton returned and was as great as ever, as if he’d never stopped playing the character, we didn’t get Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis back. Instead, Burton focused on other ones we knew, with Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara, while also bringing in new faces, led by Jenna Ortega, to tell a fresh story.

That strategy paid off, so could the same happen with a potential The Nightmare Before Christmas 2? Instead of Jack and Sally redoing what they’ve already been through, perhaps the books and video games could hold the potential of a new story. That’s a possibility, but don’t get too invested in the fantasy, because it’s never going to happen. Just last year, Tim Burton was as blunt as possible when he told Empire:

“To me the movie is very important. I’ve done sequels, I’ve done other things, I’ve done reboots, I’ve done all that shit, right? I don’t want that to happen to this. It’s nice that people are maybe interested [in another one], but I’m not. I feel like that old guy who owns a little piece of property and won’t sell to the big power-plant that wants to take my land. Get off of my land! You pesky little… You ain’t getting this property! I don’t care what you want to build on it. You come on my property… Where’s my shotgun?”

If that’s not a definitive answer, then I don’t know what is. The Nightmare Before Christmas 2 is never happening. And you know what? That’s okay. The original is pure magic. There’s no way to top it, and no need to even try.

The Nightmare Before Christmas is available to stream on Disney+ in the U.S.

Watch on Disney+