Further proving that there is no ‘80s pop-culture franchise that Hollywood won’t metaphorically feed after midnight, it was recently announced that we’re getting a third Gremlins movie.
According to Variety, Gremlins 3 hits theaters in 2027. Steven Spielberg will return to executive produce the film, and it’s being scripted by Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein, the duo behind Final Destination: Bloodlines. The director of the third Gremlins is Chris Columbus, who wrote the first movie and helmed others like Home Alone, Mrs. Doubtfire and The Thursday Murder Club.
Conspicuously absent from the list of talent involved is Joe Dante, who directed both Gremlins and Gremlins 2: The New Batch – and this omission sure didn’t go over well with fans.
It’s a little shocking to propose making a third Gremlins movie without Dante’s involvement (he was even a consulting producer on the recent Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai animated series). Although he didn’t write it, the Matinee director’s authorial stamp is all over the first movie. And Dante is a big reason why people are still interested in Gremlins at all, thanks to his gloriously unhinged sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch.
Dante famously turned down the opportunity to direct a Gremlins follow-up since the first one was so “harrowing” to make, and also because “the movie didn’t really need a sequel.” But he eventually accepted after a desperate Warner Bros. offered him a bigger budget and “complete creative control” over the project, telling him “as long as it has Gremlins in it you can do it.”
“That’s not an offer that you very often get,” Dante reasoned. “I’ve certainly never had it before or since.”
While Gremlins 2: The New Batch was a box office flop at the time, its gonzo sensibilities and sharp anti-corporate satire have aged extremely well. It’s essentially an anti-sequel that spat in the face of its own manufactured existence, but has accumulated a massive cult following over the years. And, of course, it inspired a memorable Key & Peele sketch.
Columbus wasn’t involved in the making of Gremlins 2. And while he did write the first movie, one early draft of his script ended with Gizmo the Mogwai sprouting wings and turning into a “Tinkerbell”-like fairy before flying away.
It’s possible that Dante declined to be a part of this third movie, but then again, maybe he was purposefully excluded. Dante didn’t have the best working relationship with Warner Bros. back in 2003 when the company hired him to direct Looney Tunes: Back in Action.
Imagine the nerve of making a Space Jam sequel that was better than Space Jam.
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