New GREMLINS movie will not be a remake/reboot after all

We’ve been hearing talk of a third Gremlins movie for a while now, and because Hollywood will never give up on monetizing our nostalgia those rumblings have almost always had the terms “reboot” or “remake” attached to them. But it appears that the rumblings were wrong though.

The fantastic news – if true – comes from Zach Galligan, the now 51 year old star of the original 1984 horror comedy classic and it’s 1990 sequel. Galligan was in attendance at a screening for the original Joe Dante directed film at London’s Prince Charles Cinema, and while there he engaged in a short Q&A session with the audience (via /Film), confirming reports that a third movie is definitely happening and that he will more than likely be in it. Maybe.

“I swear on my life, I don’t know if I’m in it or not, but I think there is probably a decent chance since I’m one of the few people left standing from the first movie.”

Galligan went on to explain that this new film will in fact not a reboot but a sequel, and that the Gremlins will be taking a cue from some recent dinosaurs.

“It’s not going to be a reboot. It will not be a remake in any way, shape, or form. [Original writer/producer] Chris Columbus has come out and said that the first film is very near and dear to his heart and as long as he is alive it will never be remade… So the only thing they will be – and apparently are going to be – doing is something along the lines of like Jurassic World, where it will be 30 years later.”

That actually lines up with what we’ve heard from Columbus earlier in the year. And it also doesn’t.

“It is real. I am involved. When I finished Gremlins, and the first Gremlins was released, I was asked to write the sequel, and said there was no place else to go. Now this was before the pre-crazy-franchise-era of Hollywood where everything is a franchise. So obviously a long 30 years has passed, and I thought, “Okay, we can do this. We can actually find a way not to remake the first movie, but to take those characters and do something interesting.”

I realized, not from the Star Wars phase, but from J.J. [Abrams’] other movies, when he did Star Trek, he has a sense of taking that short of sense of nostalgia we all want and bringing it forward like he brought Leonard Nimoy into the first Star Trek. And that to me was why we connected to that and it was painfully obvious when we saw the Star Wars trailer recently that when you saw Han Solo and Chewbacca, we all had tears in our eyes, because we want that feeling again.

So I thought, okay, it’s cool. If we can pull it off—if we can create that feeling but deliver something new to the audience, then maybe we can do a really terrific Gremlins reboot.”

Yep, he definitely said reboot there. At the time, Columbus did say that the movie was still in “heavy development”, so it’s certainly possible that the plans have changed. It’s been reported that Steven Spielberg, who produced the original film, will be back to produce this one. Spielberg of course also produced Jurassic World, which has now become the third highest grossing movie of all time, so having this also morph into a 30-year later sequel certainly seems very plausible.

Last Updated: November 30, 2015