Why Haven’t We Seen ‘Gremlins 3’? (2024)

One of the biggest movies of the 1980s (it was the third highest-grossing film of 1984) was the Joe Dante-directed Gremlins. Its unique story about pint-sized monsters terrorizing a small town was part horror film, part 1950s creature feature, and a little bit of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Its adorable hero, the Mogwai Gizmo, took over pop culture long before Grogu from The Mandalorian did. It seemed certain that there would be a sequel soon after. In fact, Warner Bros. begged Dante for a follow-up, but it took six years before he caved in, delivering the wacky Gremlins 2: The New Batch in 1990. While not as popular as the first film, it was still enough of a success that many expected a third. 33 years later, we're still waiting for the trilogy to be completed.

Every few years, it seems, news comes out that Gremlins 3 is in some level of development. Fans of the films get their hopes up, only for there to be no follow-up. Now, however, that might be about to change due to the arrival of the Max animated series, Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai. If this new look into the gremlins lore is a hit, could it result in renewed interest from fans and Hollywood for a third feature film?

Warner Bros. Has Actively Attempted to Develop 'Gremlins 3'

One of the biggest reasons why a Gremlins 3 hasn't happened long ago is simply because Joe Dante had no interest in doing it. He really had no interest in doing a second film, but when Warner Bros. offered him full creative control, he tested the studio by making a movie wildly different from the first. Gremlins 2: The New Batch is more of a live-action cartoon that parodies itself, trading in the small town setting for a Manhattan high-rise. The same characters are there, Gizmo and the gremlins are prevalent, but the tone aims for comedy more than anything horror. Audiences didn't know what to think. This was not what they were expecting. Between that and having waited so long to make another movie, Gremlins 2 only made $41 million at the box office.

That doesn't mean that fans were done with the potential franchise. The years have been kind to Gremlins 2, with it now regarded as a minor comedy classic, and with nostalgia for the 1980s continuing to be alive and well, so has the desire for a Gremlins 3. So far, all we've gotten is false hope in headlines that go nowhere. In 2010, there were rumors of a Gremlins 3D. In 2011, Warner Bros. renewed the domain for Gremlins3.com, which kept the hope alive. In 2015, it appeared that Gremlins 3 was very close, with a few writers announced and star Zach Galligan talking about a Jurassic World-type approach.

“It’s not going to be a reboot. It will not be a remake in any way, shape, or form. Chris Columbus has come out and said that the first film is very near and dear to his heart and as long as he is alive it will never be remade…So the only thing they will be – and apparently are going to be – doing is something along the lines of like Jurassic World, where it will be 30 years later.”

Harry Potter's Chris Columbus Already Penned a 'Gremlins 3' Script

The Chris Columbus Galligan spoke of was the writer of the first Gremlins. Long before Columbus was the director of Home Alone and a few Harry Potter movies, he was a struggling writer who hit big when Steven Spielberg noticed his script for Gremlins. Columbus had this to say to Collider about the status of Gremlins 3 in 2015:

"It is real. I am involved. When I finished Gremlins, and the first Gremlins was released, I was asked to write the sequel, and said there was no place else to go. Now this was before the pre-crazy-franchise-era of Hollywood where everything is a franchise. So obviously a long 30 years has passed, and I thought, “Okay, we can do this. We can actually find a way not to remake the first movie, but to take those characters and do something interesting.”

That hope died like a gremlin in a microwave. Come 2020, Chris Columbus was asked about Gremlins 3 again by Collider, when he dropped this:

“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.”

'Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai' on Max Could Be the Last Hope for the Gremlins Franchise

All of that talk resulted in no action: a third film never came to be. Instead, fans have had to settle for a hilarious 2021 Mt. Dew commercial that reunited Zach Galligan's Billy and Howie Mandel's Gizmo. Then came the surprising news, not of a new feature film, but an animated series. Released on May 23, on the same day HBO Max became simply Max, Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai is a fantastical show that looks at the origins of the Mogwai and Gizmo. Zach Galligan told Entertainment Weekly in 2021:

"I swear to god, if I had a dollar for every time anybody asked me about Gremlins 3, I'd make Bill Gates look like a pauper... They are doing a ten-part animated series called Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai for HBO Max coming out later this year. You just simply have to look at the nature of the way large entertainment corporations deal with franchises and properties over the years and decades. It's not difficult to make an educated guess that the cartoon is a way of seeding the younger generation that's not aware of it. If it is successful, if it gets like Mandalorian-big, then I think Gremlins 3 is inevitable."

The potential success of the Gremlins series is the perfect and best chance for a Gremlins 3. If it can do well, Hollywood is certain to green-light a script. A Gremlins 3 now won't just be a cash-in on nostalgia but the natural progression of an active brand. The only question is, how does that go? There are so many avenues to explore. Gremlins 3 could go back to its more horror-like roots. It could aim to be more silly than frightening like Gremlins 2, or try to blend the two tones like the first film effectively did. There's also the new information revealed in Secrets of the Mogwai to consider. What will the added lore to the Mogwai mean, if anything, to a potential third film? But the most important rule, the rule you can never forget, no matter how much Hollywood cries, no matter how much they beg, never make a CGI gremlin.