Gremlins was a staple of my childhood with repeat VHS viewings in the mid-’80s. The wild imagination of producer Steven Spielberg and director Joe Dante was a dark, yet fun-filled ride watching these rambunctious creatures terrorize little Gizmo and the town of Kingston Falls. Outside of the recent animated series for HBO Max, Gremlins has been long dormant since the criminally underrated 1990 sequel. But that may soon change.
Per Variety, Zach Galligan, who played Billy Peltzer in Gremlins and Gremlins 2: The New Batch, appeared at Comic-Con Manchester to surprise fans about progress for the long-in-development Gremlins 3.
“After 35 years, they’ve come up with a script. Warner Bros. is incredibly interested in doing it; apparently it’s waiting on Mr. Spielberg to read it and approve it. But you can thank the success of ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.’”
The news comes after WB’s Pam Abdy told Deadline the studio is “developing new entries in the ‘Gremlins’ and ‘Goonies’ franchises”. Outside of Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment working with WB, it is unknown if Dante or original screenwriter Chris Columbus will return. The latter had been developing a script as early as 2016 alongside Carl Ellsworth (Goosebumps, Unhinged).
Back in 2020, Columbus gave details to Collider that I believe the Gremlins 3 team should follow: No CGI puppets.
“I wrote a script, so there is an existing script. We’re working out some rights issues right now, so we’re just trying to figure out when the best time to make that film would be. I would still do it the same way – I would do it as tangible puppets, not CGI. Maybe having — you know, we had one stop-motion scene in the first Gremlins, but I don’t think I’d use much CGI in Gremlins 3.”
Are you excited for this promising update on Gremlins 3? Let us know in the comments.
