Macaulay Culkin Pitches Home Alone Legacy Sequel

Thirty-five years ago, Kevin McCallister made his family disappear. Then, two years later, he made his family disappear again. But now, in 2025, Kevin’s ready to make his family reappear. At least, that’s what star Macaulay Culkin has in mind.

As part of his Nostalgia Night with Macaulay Culkin tour (via Variety), the former child actor pitched a new Home Alone sequel, this one staring himself as an adult Kevin. “I’m either a widower or a divorcee. I’m raising a kid and all that stuff,” he mused. “I’m working really hard and I’m not really paying enough attention and the kid is kind of getting miffed at me and then I get locked out. [Kevin’s son] won’t let me in… and he’s the one setting traps for me.”

On first glance, that’s a pretty dark approach for a movie that’s become an undisputed holiday classic. The McCallisters certainly had their problems, but neither of the original movies by Chris Columbus and John Hughes really dealt with suburban ennui gripping the parents. Even the threat of two burglars who threaten to kill Kevin, either in his home or on the streets of New York, is played for slapstick laughs instead of actual terror.

But that’s because Home Alone is a kid’s movie, made for children who want to watch bad guys get bashed in the head without thinking about the consequences. Like Culkin himself, those kids are now grown, and thus approach Home Alone film from a different perspective. Adult viewers take notice of how much the McCallisters gripe at and insult each other, and how an income that allows for a gigantic house in the Chicago suburbs and regular family vacations doesn’t soothe the bitterness they all clearly feel.

In other words, a third sequel about Kevin as a disappointed adult trying to connect with his kid makes a lot of sense for the character we met back in the early 1990s. At least, it makes more sense than any of the actual Home Alone sequels that you may or may not know actually exist. Four additional Home Alone movies were released after Culkin left the franchise, including a third movie that featurs a pre-teen Scarlett Johansson in its cast, a fourth movie that recasts Kevin with a different young actor, and the 2021 direct-to-Disney+ entry Home Sweet Home Alone.

These movies have many, many problems. But for Culkin, the main issue may be how they misunderstand the central theme of the first two films, a theme he’d emphasize in the sequel he pitches. “The house is some sort of metaphor for our relationship,” he explained, making the adult Kevin’s attempts to get inside a “‘get let back into son’s heart’ kind of deal.” Even allowing that his idea is the “closest elevator pitch that I have,” Culkin allowed that he’s “not completely allergic to [a Home Alone sequel],” if it’s “the right thing.”

That all sounds good, but if there’s one thing that the original Home Alone movies taught us as kids, it’s that we should be very careful what we wish for—at least, when we’re wishing that our family would disappear.