Steven Spielberg and Chris Columbus to Reunite for Gremlins 3

Five years ago, deep within the pandemic, songwriter Nick Lutsko shared on YouTube a song that captured America’s frustrations. “Paralyzed nation, sick and depressed,” he sang. “Gotta keep myself together / Gotta take a deep breath,” he steeled himself before getting to the heart of the matter: “All because there may never be a Gremlins 3.” The rest of “Where did the Gremlins go?” outlines all of the catastrophes the world has experienced since the Gremlins franchise died off, from 9/11 to the continuation of the Land Before Time series.

Well, Lutsko’s plea must have worked. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros. has given Gremlins 3 a release date of November 19, 2027. Even better, Steven Spielberg is back to produce and original screenwriter Chris Columbus will once again write and direct the film.

Every ’80s kid knows that Gremlins introduced the world to Mogwai, cute cuddly creatures who could be your best friend, as long as you abided by three specific rules: keep them away from light, don’t get them wet, and don’t feed them after midnight. When Billy Peltzer (Zach Galligan) violated the second rule in the original 1984 film, letting water accidentally spill on his Mogwai Gizmo, he found himself caring for a host of bad tempered variations of his furry pal. And when those offshoots scarfed fried chicken after midnight, they transformed into the movie’s titular green beasties, wreaking all sorts of havoc in idyllic Kingston Falls.

Specifically, the Gremlins wreaked a very Looney Tunes style of havoc, a tonal choice foreshadowed by a cameo appearance by Warner Bros. animation legend Chuck Jones early in the film. Moreover, that sense of wackiness came from the movie’s director Joe Dante, who transformed Columbus’ more mean-spirited original script into something goofy. Dante famously pushed that aesthetic even further for the 1990 sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch, in which Billy brings the Gremlins into the Trump Tower-like Clamp building for all sorts of hijinks.

So important is Dante’s contribution to what made Gremlins special that his absence from the latest sequel announcement does raise some eyebrows. Will the third outing have the same commitment to wacky nonsense that made the previous movies so enjoyable? Columbus has shown his ability to do slapstick, most obviously in the first two Home Alone movies, so maybe he’ll retain some of that energy.

However, we can probably assume that he won’t bring the same nastiness that drove his original script. A lot of middle-of-the-road family fare marks Columbus’s filmography, including the first two Harry Potter movies, Mrs. Doubtfire, and, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. His latest outing, The Thursday Murder Club for Netflix, may be about a killer, but there’s no sense of edge to it.

If Columbus takes a softer tone with Gremlins 3, then he’ll be following the franchise’s recent turn. HBO has aired two seasons of a kid-focused Gremlins animated series on HBO Max, dealing with Gizmo’s time in Chinatown before the events of the first movie.

The Gremlins animated series was well received overall, but it’s clearly not been enough to assuage fans like Lutsko. Will Spielberg and Columbus allow him to finally end his lament? We’ll find out in two years.

Gremlins 3 is set to release on November 19, 2027.