Since its 2007 debut, “Trick ‘r Treat,” the creation of Michael Dougherty, has become a beloved and enduring entry in the world of seasonal anthologies, evolving into a cherished Halloween classic. Sam, the iconic figure at the heart of the franchise, has achieved holiday status with toys, costumes, and decorations adorning stores like Spirit Halloween every October.

Despite the expansion of the “Trick ‘r Treat” universe through comics, fans have long awaited the sequel they’ve been hoping for over 15 years. It has become an annual tradition to receive updates on the project’s status each October, with Michael Dougherty revealing last year at Beyond Fest that “Trick ‘r Treat 2” was in “very active development” at that time.

Now, one year later, with Halloween just around the corner, Michael Dougherty has resurfaced with yet another update. During a post-screening Q&A over the weekend, Collider provided an annual update directly from Dougherty himself.

Dougherty reaffirms, “I will say this because we said it last year at the Beyond Fest screening, the sequel is in active development with Legendary.”

He goes on to reveal, “I’ll go so far as to say that we have several drafts of a script. I brought back the same storyboard artist I mentioned before, Simeon Wilkins, so we have a stack of storyboards and a good fat stack of concept art done by Breehn Burns as well. So it’s inching along.”

Dougherty expresses his hopes for further progress: “I’m hoping to talk to Legendary. They’ve been wonderful, like great collaborators. But so much of it is timing, and as you know, we just got out of a strike, so the next step, fingers crossed, would be looking at budget, of course, schedule, and all the rest. But we have a really, really great script for a sequel. And I brought in my co-writer from Krampus to do it with me. So Zach Shields and Todd Casey also helped me write Trick ‘r Treat Part 2.”

“Trick ‘r Treat” weaves together five interwoven stories that unfold on Halloween, featuring an everyday high school principal with a secret life as a serial killer, a college virgin finding her potential match, a group of teenagers orchestrating a sinister prank, a woman at odds with her holiday-obsessed husband, and a cantankerous old man encountering a supernatural trick-or-treater named Sam, who becomes his formidable adversary.