BACK TO THE FUTURE Writer Bob Gale Explains Why a Fourth Film Will Never Happen
We’ve been seeing a lot of revivals, reboots, and sequels of older popular properties being made in the past few years. Luckily, Back to the Future isn’t one of them, and according to co-writer Bob Gale, it never will be.
Back to the Future is one of the most beloved 80s film franchises of all-time, and it’s hard not to think that some executive at Universal has considered the idea of bringing the franchise back to life in some way like in a fourth film. But, in a recent interview with The Collider Podcast, Gale explains why a fourth film will never happen:
“We told a complete story with the trilogy. If we went back and made another one, we’d have Michael J. Fox, who will be sixty next year, and he has Parkinson’s Disease.”
Gale went on to explain that seeing an older Marty McFly with Parkinson’s Disease probably isn’t something the audience and fans would enjoy watching. He also added that Back to the Future without Michael J. Fox is unthinkable. There’s also the fact that a new movie probably wouldn’t hold up against the original, and used Star Wars: The Phantom Menace as an example:
“And we’ve seen this repeatedly with sequels that go back to the well after many, many years, and they go ‘Ah, well, The Phantom Menace, maybe my life would have been better if I hadn’t seen it.’ There are a lot of extra sequels like that.”
“We didn’t want to be those guys who did a movie that was basically a money grab. Universal says to us, ‘You’d guys would make a whole lot of money,’ but we’re like, ‘Well, we’ve already made a whole lot of money with these movies, and we like them just the way they are. And as proud parents, we’re not going to sell our kids into prostitution.’”
Gale then went on to explain, that there would never be another Back to the Future film without the blessing of the main creative talent:
“We have an understanding with [Steven] Spielberg and Amblin that there would never be another Back to the Future movie without our blessing or being involved. So it’s not going to happen.”
So that’s that! We should never expect to see another Back to the Future film get made, and I’m totally cool with that.