Halloween Kills saw Tommy Doyle return to the franchise, but it was fortunate that Anthony Michael Hall played the character instead of former Tommy, Paul Rudd. David Gordon Green’s sequel to 2018’s Halloween featured many callbacks to John Carpenter’s 1978 classic. Two significant returning characters were Tommy Doyle and Lindsey Wallace, the children who Laurie Strode first babysat during the original film and subsequently protected from “the Shape,” Michael Myers. Both Lindsey and Tommy played a major role in Halloween Kills, with Tommy ultimately being killed by his old nemesis.
However, Tommy Doyle had also previously appeared in the sixth Halloween film, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers. The Curse of Michael Myers was retconned out of canonicity when the 2018 Halloween reboot established itself as a sequel to Carpenter’s 1978 film only. In The Curse of Michael Myers, Tommy was played by none other than the MCU’s Ant-Man himself, Paul Rudd, in his second-ever role. When the character reappeared in the new continuity, however, Rudd did not return. Instead, Tommy Doyle was played by character actor Anthony Michael Hall, best known for his roles in John Hughes films like The Breakfast Club.
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Paul Rudd’s absence was better for the film overall, as his comedic persona and immense stardom likely would have taken the spotlight away from Michael Myers. Additionally, the role was significantly different from the one played by Rudd more than two decades ago, and Anthony Michael Hall was a much better fit for this version of Tommy. In The Curse of Michael Myers, Rudd was a complete unknown and far different from the comedy legend and Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero that the world knows him as today. As such, his return to the Halloween franchise would have likely been jarring. Furthermore, Halloween Kills featured an ensemble cast. If it had two main characters, they were Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode and Michael himself. Therefore including a major Hollywood star in such a gritty horror film like Halloween Kills could have distracted from its core goal: an analysis of Michael Myers’ character.
The Tommy Doyle in Halloween Kills was a much better fit for a character actor like Anthony Michael Hall. In this film, the character was written to be a man suffering from immense post-traumatic stress, and he had become obsessed with Michael Myers and the killings of 1978. As such, his eventual downfall, when he scared the town into becoming a lynch-mob intent on hunting down Michael at the cost of an innocent’s life, saw him become a more unlikable and flawed character. Rudd hasn’t tended to play characters like this version of Tommy, as he has historically favored comedic or at least more pleasant characters. Furthermore, Tommy only appeared sporadically throughout the film, so it would have been odd to have the actor disappear for long periods when he would clearly be the most famous and well-known person on-screen (alongside Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode).
Anthony Michael Hall was able to bring desperation and obsessive energy to the role that made him equal parts sympathetic and deplorable. His take on Tommy was an unexpected evolution of the little boy who avoided a fatal encounter with The Shape back in 1978. It was, therefore, refreshing to see a version of Tommy that wasn’t like the generic protagonist of The Curse of Michael Myers. Rudd’s Tommy was very much influenced by the teenage main characters of Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street. In contrast, Michael Hall’s Tommy was older and beaten down. Due to this, he was able to bring an intensity to Tommy, and while he wasn’t always likable, he was memorable.
Halloween Kills benefitted from refraining from casting a major celebrity like Paul Rudd as Tommy Doyle. The decision to cast Anthony Michael Hall led to a new take on the character that worked with the film’s narrative, which was entirely focused on the characterization of Michael Myers. Had Rudd been running around with the movie’s ensemble cast shouting “evil dies tonight,” it could have been a major distraction from the core story. Fortunately, Michael Hall did an admirable job as Tommy, even if he couldn’t stop Michael Myers from rampaging through Haddonfield once again.
- Halloween Ends (2022)Release date: Oct 14, 2022
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