It’s been over 40 years since Gizmo showed up on our screens, and Warner Bros. apparently thinks the little furball’s still got it. They’ve finally greenlit Gremlins 3, and fans are freaking out like it’s 1984 all over again.
The studio dropped the news during a recent investor call, and they mentioned November 19, 2027 as the date. That’s right before Thanksgiving, which is exciting, except it’s also when highly anticipated films like Frozen III and the new Avengers movie are coming out. Talk about walking into a potential blockbuster bloodbath. Then again, gremlins do thrive in chaos, so the timing seems pretty appropriate.
Chris Columbus is directing. This is the guy who wrote the first Gremlins movie, then spent his years making hits like Home Alone, Mrs. Doubtfire, and the early Harry Potter films. Now he’s finally getting to direct Gremlins himself. His original script is being tweaked by Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein—they’re behind the new Final Destination movie.
Spielberg’s back too. He and Amblin are exec producing, according to Deadline.
The first Gremlins film came out on June 8, 1984. The original film was such a huge hit that summer, that it actually caused some controversy because of how dark and violent it got for a PG-rated movie. The backlash, along with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (which came out the same summer), is what led to the creation of the PG-13 rating later that year.
The crazy thing is this movie’s been “in development” forever. Zach Galligan (who played Billy from the originals) has been talking about wanting to do it for a decade. Columbus brought it up too in 2017 and laid out his whole vision for where the story should go. Meanwhile, most of us figured it was just Hollywood talk—you know, the kind of stuff people say at parties that never actually materializes.
Except now it’s real. There’s an actual date on the calendar. And even Spielberg’s involved.
What we don’t have is literally anything else. There’s no plot details yet and no cast announcements. There is zero clues to whether they’re going dark like the first one or totally unhinged like with Gremlins 2. Just the knowledge that it’s actually, finally happening, and the many of original people are part of it.