The Nightmare Before Christmas creator Tim Burton doesn’t want there to be a sequel.
During an interview with Empire Magazine, the filmmaker revealed he doesn’t want to see any more Nightmare Before Christmas movies.
“To me, the movie is very important,” he said. “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.”
The Nightmare Before Christmas debuted in 1993 and quickly became a kids Christmas classic. It tells the tale of Jack Skellington, a beloved resident of Halloween Town who stumbles upon a new way of life when he finds himself in Christmas Town. However, his plans to bring joy to the world himself soon go awry.
The story was based on a poem by Burton he wrote in 1982 while he was working at Walt Disney Productions as an animator. “It’s nice that people are maybe interested [in another one], but I’m not,” said Burton. “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.”
It’s worth noting that The Nightmare Before Christmas has already seen its story expanded in other mediums, notably the 2004 video game Oogie’s Revenge. The game served as a pseudo-sequel and even saw Burton serve as a creative consultant. Additionally, Sally’s story was furthered with the 2022 novel, Long Live the Pumpkin Queen by Shea Ernshaw. However, a sequel film sounds unlikely.
“Get off of my land!” Burton barked. “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?”
IGN’s The Nightmare Before Christmas review gave it 8/10 and said: “Looking back at the film now, it's a small miracle that The Nightmare Before Christmas ever got made: featuring a paper-thin skeleton protagonist and a horde of Halloween minions who dismantle the Christmas holiday, Burton's idea seems too odd and dark to have ever seemed commercially viable. But combining palpable and moreover sympathetic characterizations with emphatic, colorful and expertly fluid stop-motion animation, fans quickly flocked to its substance as much as they did its style.”
Want to read more about animated movies? Check out where The Nightmare Before Christmas sits among the best Christmas horror movies and find out where to watch classic Christmas films online.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
