GREMLINS 3 Update From Original Star Zack Galligan
Over the years there’s been talk of the possibility of a Gremlins 3 movie happening one day. There was a script written for the sequel at one point, but there’s been no real movement on it. The latest update comes from original Gremlins star Zach Galligan, who played Billy Peltzer in the 1984 horror comedy, and he believes that the movie is eventually going to happen one day.
During an interview with ScreenRant, the actor said that he believes the animated series, Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai, is leading up to Warner Bros. producing a “live-action film.” He shared:
“I do. I can’t really figure out why Warner Bros. would do two seasons — not one, but two seasons — of the animated series, and spend a lot of money on it, unless there was some kind of endgame. And usually the endgame for a huge studio like Warner Bros. Discovery is a live-action film.
“A live-action film is always where you’re going to make the most money. Super Mario Bros. just proved that . . . the endgame probably will be, I’m hoping, a third film. I don’t think it’ll be a reboot, though, because Chris Columbus has nixed that idea. He owns part of the rights.”
Chris Columbus previously offered an update on a third film, saying: “I would love to do it. 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.”
The script was written by screenwriter Carl Ellsworth who previously shared that the film was “thought of as a direct sequel mostly to the first film—not discounting the second one by any stretch, but I saw it as very much a passing-the-baton story, staying in the tone of the original. I think that helped get me the job: I said, ‘Yeah, there’s a lot of humor in the movie, helped by the classic Jerry Goldsmith score that gives us a license to laugh, but it’s first and foremost a horror movie.’”
Ellsworth went on to say: “These little creatures—what they’re really doing, they’re cold-blooded little murderers, you know? They’re psychotic little creatures that are killing everybody. So that’s where it all started. I tried to preserve the humor, but at the same time, I was starting with the
foundation of this being a horror movie, which I was really thrilled about.”
When previously talking about the script, Columbus said that it was “twisted and dark.” I would love to see this movie get made, and it would have not only seen the return of the original star Galligan as Billy Peltzer, it would have also brought back his girlfriend, played by Phoebe Cates. But, it’s explained that “Gizmo was at the very core of the story; it explored more of the mythology and the history of the Gremlins.”
It would be pretty cool if a Gremlins sequel happened after all of these years, but we’ll just have to wait and see what WB ends up doing.