The Director Of ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ Would Totally Do A Prequel, Even If Tim Burton Probably Isn’t Into The Idea

The Nightmare Before Christmas wasn’t a monster hit when first released 30 years back, but there was no way a Tim Burton-produced movie with that title wasn’t going to have a long life. Sure enough, it’s become a staple of two holidays. It’s even spawned a concert that’s currently on tour. Given this age of revivals and reboots and belated sequels and prequels, how long will it be until it succumbs to that trend Maybe a while — or never — but its director is holding out hope that it does.

Per People, Henry Selick — the stop-motion maven who would go on to tackle Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach movie and Neil Gaiman’s Coraline, plus team up with Jordan Peele for last year’s Wendell & Wild — says he’s a little reluctant to go back to something he thinks is already “perfect.” He’s not the only one.

“I think Tim in particular feels like, why mess with that” Selick said. “He certainly doesn’t need to make more money from a sequel. He has had so many other successes, and so far nobody’s come up with a great idea for a sequel. And I still think that Tim gets to decide. I don’t think there’s any idea that would convince him.”

Not that he hasn’t been thinking about doing another one anyway. “It might be more interesting to do a prequel,” Selick admitted. “There might be a more interesting story there about how Jack became the King of Halloweentown.”

Another person who would be into it Chris Sarandon, who did the speaking vocals for “Pumpkin King” Jack Skellington. (Danny Elfman, who composed the music and most of the songs, took over for singing duties.) He said he’d “absolutely” be down to reprise his decades-old role.

“To quote Henry, ‘F*ck yeah,’ ” Sarandon told People. “If there were a sequel, I’d be there in a minute.”

Selick has often bristled at the idea that much of the public thinks Burton is the primary maker of The Nightmare Before Christmas. In truth he was a producer and is credited with the story. It’s Selick who lovingly, laboriously directed it, even though Burton’s name has sometimes been included in the title.

The Nightmare Before Christmas now streams on Disney+.