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Honestly The Nightmare Before Christmas doesn’t need a prequel. Holiday towns are timeless. The residents don’t age.

Death probably was the pumpkin king before it was even a thing. It's far older than Halloween itself after all, so Edgar, being a pumpkin, was probably the first proper pumpkin king after Death decided to stop ruling the realm once Halloween became Halloween.

I personally like to head cannon that both “The Pumpkin King” and “Battle for The Pumpkin King” exist at the same time in the sense that one version is the story that Jack remembers and the other is the way Oogie would tell it.

Maybe the reson why Jack has been alive and has been the pumpkin king for so long is because he's not a pumpkin, and is a skeleton. Because, Skeletons don't actually wither away even after death. They can be broken and crushed but unless they are burned by fire than they can't really disappear (Aka turn to ashes by cremation) which is why he is has been the king for so long. It would make since if the past pumpkin kings have been actual pumpkins like Edgur, but pumpkins slowly rot away and become moldy and squishy after a long while of being laid out. Which, would mean that they are all basically gonna die at some point. Unlike Jack, who is, again, literally a skeleton.

Even though its not canon to the story of the film universe, the Kingdom Hearts series depicts jack as a master of Magic with elemental spells like Bolts of sorrow, Icy terror and Blazing Fury.

There seems to be a general theme of characters from halloween town not being inherently evil, but being caused to become evil indirectly or causing evil themselves accidentally. For instance, in the original movie Jack himself ends up becoming a villain simply from the joy of discovering something new and wanting to experience it for himself, and is eventually regretful when he realizes what he's done. If we consider this story to be canon to the original film, it paints a picture of evil being something not native to halloween town and its residents, but rather something consequential in nature. Even this Edgar fellow seems to be a corrupted soul victim to the same curse he's passing onto Oogie.

The pumpkin patch being a graveyard of fallen pumpkin kings is actually a really cool concept. I love that.

I feel more convinced that the 2005 game is cannon to the story

I’m an aging curmudgeon presently exhausted by modern nostalgia mining. I respect the analysis here, as I do understand that this universe is deeply meaningful for a lot of people, but I can’t help but feel that the new book is basically glorified fan fiction and a callous cash grab to boot.

My theory is that each Pumpkin King is granted mastery over one of the four elements; Edgar was wind, Jack is fire and a past Pumpkin King (possibly Edgar's successor) was Earth. This is because of the lines in This is Halloween that say "I am the hoo when you call 'who's there? I am the wind blowing through your hair". Edgar is the wind blowing through your hair and the "hoo when you call who's there" is likely the Pumpkin King before Edgar who could use his Earth powers to control all the night dwelling creatures, owls in particular. Similarly I think the reason why jack o' lanterns are associated with ghosts in Halloween Town is because the dust of the previous Pumpkin King is mixed with soil and used to grow a pumpkin which is then turned into a jack o' lantern which houses the spirit of the previous Pumpkin King.

I've actually figured the people of Halloween Town age (Save for the Vampire Bros.) from the Oogie's Revenge game. If you click on the guillotine in the square, you get a bit of text from Jack saying that he had a guillotine "When he was a boy." And in the Vampire Bros. house, if you read the book in the room where you put the bats away, it mentions that they have served Hallwoeen Town by aiding "the Sovregin of Screams." AKA, the Pumpkin King.

For some reason I feel like the Pumpkin King was also under the control of insects, specifically the spider.

I think Jack does have supernatural powers; immediately after he says he's a "master of fright" he adds "and a demon of light", which is highly suggestive. Then, immediately after THAT, he says, "and I'll scare you right out of your pants" while waving his hands down at the pumpkin patch, causing all the jack-o-lanterns to open up and moan, and the ghosts inside to fly out. Perhaps his "and they call him... Sandy... Claws!" moment at the town hall was not the Mayor sliding a red filter over the spotlight, but Jack exerting his control as a "demon of light" to alter the environment... to make it more spooky!

So, what if the beings in the holiday worlds are powered by belief? Edgar doesn't like that Halloween Town isn't fear based, but that's because in the mortal world, Halloween was becoming more and more a family friendly, less scary holiday. If we put TNBC in "present day", it would take place in the 90's-ish (the scenes in the mortal world look more like the 50's, but whatever). And by the 90's Halloween was just starting to get back its scarier side.

Jack isn't just the Pumpkin King, he's the king of everything Halloween! He only had one true movie but his legacy stayed true, he has lasted unlike any other character in history.

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Edar must represents Samhain especially with the way he was able to use magic. So he was just the older version of what holloween once was.

I think that when they reach adulthood, the age reeeeaaally slowly. I mean in Sally book, we know she was a lil girl once and we asume the bogie kids died when they were kids (but because of their names ) I think they were assesinated, because abusive or poor parents, and its easier to end a baby that a kid who will fight back

This is one of my all time favorite movies and I NEVER noticed the grim reaper. Ever! How'd I miss that?