Seeing as we live in a time where nostalgia-driven remakes and belated sequels are all the rage, a new Gremlins movie has been in the works for a while. The 1984 original horror/comedy has been a favorite alternate Christmas film for decades, but despite its success, Joe Dante’s anarchic masterpiece never really spawned a franchise, except for the mostly forgotten 1990 sequel, Gremlins: The New Batch.
Original screenwriter Chris Columbus is trying to put that right, though. For the past few years, he’s been working on a script for Gremlins 3. The last time we got an update on its development was back in 2017, with the famed director of the likes of Home Alone, Harry Potter and more confirming that he was aiming to capture the sensibility of the first film and promising that it would be “twisted and dark.”
While chatting with Metro US, however, Columbus has now given us our clearest idea yet of what to expect from the new Gremlins. He confirmed that conversations are currently underway concerning the movie and most interestingly, revealed that the project is “definitely a reboot.”
“”Gremlins” we are actively talking about that. So that’s what I am working on with my production company 1492 Pictures… It will almost definitely be a reboot.”
“Reboot” is often used as a bit of a catch-all term these days, so Columbus might be referring to the film as a reboot the same way someone might call Jurassic World a Jurassic Park reboot, for instance, despite them sharing a continuity. Taken at face value, though, it appears that the new Gremlins won’t take its cues from the original flick and will simply wipe the slate clean.
This approach usually isn’t too appreciated by fans, but sometimes it is the way to go, so we’ll just have to reserve our judgement on this one until further details come to light. When that happens, hopefully our enthusiasm for the new Gremlins won’t just shrivel up and die like the titular creatures themselves do in the sunlight.