In this morning’s news dispatches from left field, we have a headline that none of us would have predicted yesterday: Warner Bros. is making a Gremlins 3. And that long-belated sequel, 36 years in the making, will be directed by none other than the original 1984 film’s writer, Chris Columbus, with Steven Spielberg executive producing through Amblin Entertainment. The only key name missing seems to be original director Joe Dante, who hasn’t been particularly active on the filmmaking front in the 2020s. Still, it would be nice to find a way to get the man behind The Howling and The ‘Burbs back on board as well. Gremlins 3, meanwhile, has reportedly been set for a November 2027 release. The film will be co-written by Columbus and Final Destination: Bloodlines directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein.
The original 1984 Gremlins was a Hollywood breakout for Roger Corman protege Dante, an unexpectedly successful blend of dark humor, adventure and creature FX horror that introduced audiences to the Mogwai, a race of pint-sized furry goofs who hide a secret dark side, transforming into the more destructive and wicked “gremlins” if fed after midnight. Dante would go on to direct Gremlins 2: The New Batch in 1990, but his dissatisfaction with the Hollywood sequel system resulted in Dante unleashing a vicious parody of his own prior film, heavily satirizing the expectations of crafting commercially friendly sequel fare. Audiences were perplexed by the film and its satirical statement, and Gremlins 2 was for decades lost to the cultural dustbin until a more recent pop cultural revival and reappraisal as a cult film. Memorably, its idiosyncrasies went on to inspire one of the greatest of Key & Peele sketches about the frenzied writing process of Gremlins 2, which we can’t help but embed below.
Warner Bros. had effectively trial run the idea of a feature film Gremlins revival in recent years with animated series Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai on HBO Max, which ran for two seasons. Clearly, they were convinced to not only proceed with Gremlins 3, but do so in a splashy way, given the big names involved. One can’t help but assume that the film will probably go the full legacy sequel route and bring back any members of the original cast who are available. Somehow, we expect that Gremlins 2 probably won’t factor much into the outline of a Gremlins 3.
The film will also cap an impressive directorial career revival for Columbus, who in recent years has been much more active as a producer than as a filmmaker behind the camera. In the years since the likes of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Columbus’ directorial days felt like they had flamed out following a film like 2015’s Pixels, but 2025 has already seen him return with Netflix’s well-received The Thursday Murder Club. Not bad for a guy who’s been steadily working in a wide array of Hollywood styles since the 1980s. We’ll bring you more information on Gremlins 3 as it arrives, but for now, do yourself a favor and watch the beloved Key & Peele sketch.
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