Just a day after the return of Gizmo and Billy Peltzer (Zach Galligan) in a Mountain Dew Zero Sugar ad comes the reveal of the voice-cast for Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai, the upcoming animated prequel series for HBO Max. The ten-episode series will be set in 1920s Shanghai and tell the story of how naive 10-year-old Sam Wing met the young Mogwai known as Gizmo. "Along with a teenage street thief named Elle, Sam and Gizmo take a perilous journey through the Chinese countryside, encountering, and sometimes battling, colorful monsters and spirits from Chinese folklore," reads the series synopsis. "On their quest to return Gizmo to his family and uncover a legendary treasure, they are pursued by a power-hungry industrialist and his growing army of evil Gremlins."
According to Variety, The new cast will include BD Wong (Jurassic World: Dominion), Ming-Na Wen (The Mandalorian), Matthew Rhys (Perry Mason), and the great James Hong (Big Trouble in Little China). The series will star Izaac Wang as Sam Wing, with Wen voicing Sam's mother, Fong Wing, BD Wong voicing Wing's father, Hon Wing, and Hong voicing Grandpa, the elder of the Wing family. As for Matthew Rhys, he will be playing the villainous Riley Greene, "a power-hungry English industrialist and treasure hunter who wields black magic that is determined to stop at nothing in his pursuit of Gizmo and the mythical treasure of the Mogwai." Gabrielle Green is also onboard to voice Ellie, a friend of Sams, and A.J. LoCascio will voice Gizmo, taking over from Howie Mandel. Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai has been penned by Tza Chun, who also serves as an executive producer. The series doesn't have an official release date just yet, but it's expected to debut on HBO Max sometime this year.
As for that adorable Mountain Dew Zero Sugar ad, Zach Galligan spoke with Entertainment Weekly about how his reunion with Gizmo was more emotional than he expected. "There was a time when we were shooting the commercial, and we had a little bit of a break, and the puppeteer is next to me and he's manipulating Gizmo's arms. I leaned over to Gizmo and I was like, 'How are you doing, buddy? It's good to see you,'" Galligan said. "It was so realistic that, after hours of working with it, it has its own reality. I did get a little choked up, not so much about reuniting with the puppet, but more that it sends you rocketing back 37 years in a way that almost nothing else does."