Way back in October 2014, Warner Bros. announced that they had created a new division called Blue Ribbon Content, which would be developing and producing live action series for digital platforms. One of the projects on the Blue Ribbon slate was a web series based on the CRITTERS franchise… and then we heard nothing more about that idea. So much time passed, I figured the Critters web series had been abandoned. But then, three years after they dangled the possibility in front of us, Blue Ribbon announced that a Critters web series, titled Critters: A New Binge, was actually moving forward.
The Critters (Krites) are being brought back to our screens by writer/director Jordan Rubin and his co-writers Al Kaplan and Jon Kaplan, a creative team that has experience working with carnivorous little creatures – these are the guys who made ZOMBEAVERS. In their Critters web series,
the critters return to Earth in search of one of their kin, who was left behind years ago during an earlier mission. They land in Burbank, Calif., where they wreak havoc on a group of high schoolers and their families.
While I liked the idea of ZOMBEAVERS more than I enjoyed the execution, I'm excited to be getting more Critters after the franchise has been dormant for twenty-six years. Speaking with Slash Film, Rubin revealed some interesting things about his approach to continuing the series. For starters, this isn't an origin story:
the Critters already exist in the world. They’re returning to Earth because they left one of their offspring behind that they’re trying to find. They’re being chased by the bounty hunters. So it’s a new binge, but it’s not an origin story per se like Batman Begins where you’re seeing from the ground up. This is a world that already exists that we’re joining.
… (The offspring is) sort of a surprise and a reveal. Let’s just say there was an impregnation that happened. There was a seed that was left behind and now that maybe has come to fruition, so they need to find it because they think it will help them maybe take over the galaxy."
Rubin confirmed that the bounty hunters are shape shifters like the ones from the earlier films, but they're not the same characters. Those characters died in the sequels anyway, but the web series won't necessarily be acknowledging the events of the sequels.
It’s sort of its own story. Well, [Leonardo] DiCaprio would be nice to show up in it but I’d say it’s more off of the first one. I felt like the later films started to have more fun and get a little more silly campy in a good way, but I like the darkness of the first one to me. It felt more like it went for it. I know people that still watch it and get scared by it. I don’t get scared by that kind of thing. I’m laughing."
Like the first CRITTERS, this web series will center on a kid in a typical American family, although this one's more modern and dysfunctional. While there don't seem to be any rating restrictions on the web series, it sounds like Rubin doesn't really want to make it any harder than the original movie's PG-13.
As for the Critter themselves, there's a chance the Chiodo Brothers may be back to bring the creatures to life.
We spoke to them and I’m trying to make that work. I think that would be amazing. It’s all a matter of budget and if it can work out with their schedule and where we shoot. If we shoot in Canada… I’m trying to make that work because I met with them and they were great, but we’re speaking to a couple different puppet houses."
The script for the web series, which will consist of eight 10 minute episodes (so it will basically be a feature told in serial form), has been turned in and production on the show is expected to begin sometime in the next couple months. Eventually it will be available for viewing through Verizon's go90 streaming service.