Since Halloween III doesnt have anything to do with the Michael Myers storyline why is it called Halloween III?

Answer 1

John Carpenter wanted to turn the Halloween franchise into an anthology. He wanted to make it a series of stand-alone Halloween-season related films. Each one would've had its own unique characters, setting, and storyline.

So it would be like this:

Halloween (1978) and Halloween II (1981) were about Michael Myers, an insane serial-killer who escaped from an insane asylum and goes on a bloody rampage through Haddonfield, Illinois on Halloween night, 1978.

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) was about an evil toymaker who wanted to sacrifice everyone in the world to the pagan sun-god Nuada (for those you who still haven't figured out why Cochran did it) through Halloween-masks and a television commercial on Halloween night (the film doesn't have a specific year).

And future Halloween films would've told other stories that took place on Halloween night.

Unfortunately, fans of the first two Halloween films were confused by the title and lack of reference to the previous films and as a result the box office suffered and this idea was quickly dropped. And for some it wasn't so much that Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) had nothing to do with the first two films (they were looking forward to something fresh and new), but the story the producers decided to tell, the fans wanted to something very different from the film, something more traditional. Several years later the idea was brought up to bring back the Michael Myers storyline in Halloween IV: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) officially resurrected the storyline and characters of the original.