GREMLINS and GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH star Zach Galligan doesn't know if he'll be asked to be involved with the new GREMLINS film that's in development at Warner Bros., but beyond that bit of information he seems to be quite adept at gathering intel on the project. During a recent interview with Bleeding Cool, Galligan discussed the movie-to-be we'll call GREMLINS 3 for now, reiterating that Chris Columbus, who wrote the original film and is now overseeing the development of the new one, has said "There will never be a (GREMLINS) remake, there will never be a reboot, there will only be a sequel."
I think you can tell what’s happening with Gremlins 3 the same way you could tell with Gremlins 2. It’s the same people and they tend to work the same way. There is a huge time gap but it’s Warner Bros, Spielberg and Chris Columbus. Now, Chris Columbus didn’t have anything to do with Gremlins 2 – because by his own admission he didn’t see a franchise. He kind of regrets it I believe, but he was ‘one and done’ I don’t think he cared for Gremlins 2 and the direction some of the characters went in, so he’s kind of wrested control back.
… He has been aggressively working on a Gremlins 3 that takes place in present day. He tantalisingly says there will be some NEW characters and some OLD characters – I guess in the style of a Force Awakens type sequel – One thing we know for sure is they have a writer on board. The only insight I can give is the following: There was a 6 year gap between Gremlins and Gremlins 2 most of that time was spent with them writing and rejecting ideas and re-writing. One of the ideas that was rejected was ‘Gremlins in Vegas’ they went with that for 18 months and felt it was too expensive. Eventually they came up with the tower idea, where essentially I’m working for Donald Trump our new President! That took six years to happen. Carl Ellsworth, has been apparently working on the script for a year and a half now. If no new names start appearing on the IMDb listing then that means they like the script. If new names start appearing, y’know Kevin Smith appears, it means it’s back in rewrites with a new vision. Warner Bros definitely wants it, Chris Columbus wants to do it because he’d like to undo the Gremlins 2 thing as he wasn’t thrilled with it and Spielberg wants to do it I imagine – because he’s Spielberg – and why wouldn’t he want to do it. Once he’s found the right script he can attach his name and make a ton of money. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Galligan also knows how to pick blockbuster films to compare this GREMLINS 3 idea to – a year ago, he said it was a decades later sequel along the lines of JURASSIC WORLD, and now he says the mixture of characters old and new is like STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS. Very well done.
Here's hoping that the development of GREMLINS 3 is indeed going well and that Ellsworth is crafting a script for a sequel that will be well received by fans of the franchise. I hope Galligan will also be contacted about reprising the role of Billy before this film heads into production, it just wouldn't feel right to have a sequel without Billy and Gizmo.