GREMLINS 3 Reveals First Mogwai Footage and Delays Release Until 2028
It took more than three decades, but the Mogwai are finally coming back to the big screen. The first teaser footage for Gremlins 3 has arrived, offering a very brief look at the next chapter of the beloved horror-comedy franchise. Unfortunately, it also comes with some news fans aren’t going to love.
The movie has been pushed back nearly a year. Gremlins 3 was previously expected to hit theaters on November 19, 2027, but the teaser reveals an October 8, 2028 release date. After waiting 35 years since Gremlins 2: The New Batch, another year certainly isn’t what fans wanted to hear.
At least October feels like a natural home for Gremlins. The franchise has always occupied that wonderfully weird space between comedy, horror, creature feature, and family entertainment, and putting the third movie right in the middle of Halloween season makes a lot of sense.
The move also gets Gremlins 3 away from Disney’s Frozen 3, which would have made for some brutal box office competition in November 2027. So while the delay stings, Warner Bros. now has a much better seasonal window to unleash its furry little monsters.
The teaser footage is only 11 seconds long, but it gives us our first glimpse of a Mogwai and appears to introduce a new young character who gets their hands on one of the adorable creatures.
Anyone familiar with these movies knows exactly where this is headed. Give a kid a Mogwai, give them a few extremely important rules to follow, and watch everything go spectacularly wrong.
The original Gremlins followed Billy Peltzer, played by Zach Galligan, after his father gave him the lovable Mogwai Gizmo as a Christmas present. Caring for a Mogwai came with some very specific instructions. Getting one wet causes it to reproduce, while feeding one after midnight transforms the cute little creature into a nasty, reptilian Gremlin.
Billy learned those rules the hard way when the creatures multiplied and eventually terrorized his hometown at Christmas, with the mohawked Stripe leading the chaos.
Gremlins 2: The New Batch took the insanity to New York City and cranked everything up. Gremlins running loose inside a high-tech corporate skyscraper became the excuse for increasingly ridiculous mutations, including creatures altered with genetic material from other animals.
Galligan starred in both movies and remains active in the franchise. He also provided a voice cameo in the animated series Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see Billy return in some capacity. Nothing has been announced regarding his involvement in the third movie, though.
There are some major returning names already confirmed. Steven Spielberg is once again serving as executive producer, while Chris Columbus, who wrote the screenplay for the original Gremlins, is stepping into the director’s chair this time around. Columbus later became known for directing films including Home Alone and the first two Harry Potter movies.
No official story details have been revealed yet, but I’m excited to see what comes for this! The original 1984 film, directed by Joe Dante, is still one of the great oddball studio movies of its era. Its combination of comedy, horror, practical creature effects, and surprisingly gross-out mayhem helped contribute to Hollywood creating the PG-13 rating, and the movie has only gained more fans over the years.
The entertainment landscape is obviously very different now, especially with horror-comedies and creature features coming in every imaginable flavor. Still, there’s something special about seeing an actual Mogwai back on screen.
If Gremlins 3 can recapture the mischievous personality, practical-effects charm, and slightly unhinged humor of those first two movies, this could be one hell of a fun comeback.
Gremlins 3 will be released in theaters on October 8, 2028.