Warner Bros. is reviving the Gremlins franchise with two powerhouse names back on board.
Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav announced the greenlight of a new Gremlins film during the company’s third-quarter earnings call on Thursday.
Zaslav said that Steven Spielberg is back on board as executive producer through his company Amblin Entertainment.
Also, the 1984 original film’s writer, Chris Columbus, is returning to produce and direct the film.
The new Gremlins movie will be released Nov. 19, 2027.
The term “gremlins” was coined during the 1920s when mechanical failures in RAF aircraft were jokingly blamed on tiny invisible creatures. Then children’s author Roald Dahl wrote a book titled The Gremlins in 1943.
The notion of gremlins was first conceived during the 1920s when mechanical failures in Royal Air Force aircraft were jokingly blamed on the small monsters. The term “gremlins” also entered popular culture as children’s author and RAF pilot Roald Dahl published a book called The Gremlins in 1943. Walt Disney considered adapting the project into a feature film, but it never got off the ground.
The first Gremlins movie was a dark horror comedy directed by Joe Dante and introduced an adorable creature called a Mogwai that’s adopted as a pet by a suburban family. But when the creature’s caretaking rules are broken, the Mogwai multiples into an array of destructive green killer monsters. The film was a box office hit, produced for only $11 million and grossing $151 million domestically.
The film spawned a divisive sequel which was also directed by Dante, but not written by Columbus. Released in 1990, Gremlins 2: The New Batch was a broad comedy set in New York City that brutally satirized the original film. The film only made $41 million at the box office and effectively halted the franchise.
Warners and Amblin effectively tested modern-day interest in Gremlins with an animated series titled Gremlins that was launched in 2023 and has aired two seasons on Max.
More to come…