While we continue to wait for Gremlins 3 to actually happen, Billy Peltzer and his adorable pet Mogwai Gizmo have reunited in a recent Mountain Dew ad. Following the trend for nostalgic movie sequel commercials – like Cadillac’s Edward Scissorhands Super Bowl promo – the soda company’s new drink, Mountain Dew Zero Sugar, is being advertised with a little help from Gremlins star Zach Galligan, as you can see above.
The ad features a middle-aged Billy and Gizmo chilling in front of the TV, with Billy offering some Mountain Dew to his tiny pal. Unfortunately, Giz spills the soda and gets himself wet, breaking one of the film’s iconic rules, and he starts producing Gremlins eggs that’ll soon hatch into his evil spawn. The commercial ends with Billy’s teenage daughter entering the room – with her own Mogwai pet on her shoulder – rolling her eyes as she sees what’s going on. Clearly, this is a regular occurrence in the Peltzer household.
Original screenwriter Chris Columbus has been ready to go on Gremlins 3 for years now, promising that it’ll be “twisted and dark” and that Gizmo won’t be replaced with CGI. Unfortunately, however, rights issues are apparently holding the project up. The good news, though, is that Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai, a family-friendly animated series, is due to drop on HBO Max later this year and if the show performs well, hopefully it’ll lead to the studio working out these issues and officially moving forward with another outing.
Secrets is a prequel that’ll explore how old Mr. Wing from the first movie originally encountered Gizmo when he was a boy in 1920s Shanghai. That sounds like a lot of fun, but obviously fans really want a live-action sequel that picks up with the characters in the modern day, much like this commercial does. In fact, it does a good job of scratching our itch for more Gremlins media – the only thing it’s missing is a cameo from Phoebe Cates.
