Halloween Ends director David Gordon Green: Really, guys, Jamie Lee Curtis is done after this

There comes a time when every final girl must take her final bow—even one with a survival rate as high as Jamie Lee Curtis’s iconic Laurie Strode. How many times does this poor woman have to stand in terror next to a doorframe before we let her retire? When does she get to kick up her heels with a Mars Bar and watch Hocus Pocus on October 31 like the rest of us?

Apparently very soon, at least according to Curtis. “I need to now cut her loose and let her live in the minds and hearts of the fans that have supported her,” the actor said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly last week. “I now get to go off and do my own thing.” (Side note: this may be a Freaky Friday sequel where Lindsay Lohan plays a “sexy grandma,” which Curtis pitched herself? We’re in.)

In the past, Haddonfield, Illinois has operated on a similar edict as the fantastical (but almost equally unsurvivable) Iron Islands from Game Of Thrones: what is dead may never die. Since Curtis’ announcement, fans have been skeptical of her actually saying goodbye to the role, given the franchise’s habit of resurrecting the dead. This includes Michael Myers, Laurie (whose “death” in 2002's presciently-named Halloween: Resurrection was specifically requested by Curtis), and the franchise itself, which has already been rebooted several times.

This is really, seriously where it all Ends for Curtis, however, at least according to director David Gordon Green, who is responsible for the current trilogy. “I do feel confident that we are saying goodbye to Jamie playing Laurie in the universe,” he told Entertainment Weekly in a separate article published today. “At some point someone will maybe bring a new Laurie into something, some twist will happen, and the mythology will continue, but I do feel like this is the last time we’re going to see her nervous smile and those fun enlightening attributes of Laurie Strode.”

Is Green teasing the permanent death of our favorite not-so-final girl? Will those “fun enlightening attributes” be hidden behind the mask the next time we (don’t) see them? Will she finally avenge her family and live in peace, free at last from that iconic John Carpenter score? Only time—and Halloween Ends, which premieres October 14—will tell.