Joe Dante will not be involved with a Gremlins sequel or reboot

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

A few years back we shared some words from GREMLINS director Joe Dante about a possible sequel to his 1984 classic; he basically said he doesn’t think it will happen and he wouldn’t mind seeing someone else take over. We know there’s a push for a new GREMLINS movie, which would be a reboot or sequel set 30 years after the original. But now Dante pretty much put the nail in the coffin when it comes to his involvement with a new movie.

Joe Dante, who directed both the original film and its sequel, admits that he’s not involved:

I am not involved with it. It’s something that we hear about every six months for the past five to ten years. I know there have been many attempts to do it. It’s tricky because the rights are jointly owned by Warner Bros and [Steven Spielberg’s] Amblin, so you’ve got to jump through two hurdles to get your idea approved.

However, he did say there is a script being written:

I know a lot of very well known people have come up with ideas for another ‘Gremlins’ movie and not of them have gone. I do know, however, that there’s a script being written now and the tricky thing is that I’m not sure that the people making the movie now understand what the original appeal was of the first movie, which was not beloved by the studio until it started making money.

Dante also addressed his 1990 sequel:

When they started making a sequel, they didn’t understand what we had done on the original to make it successful. So they hired me to come back and make the sequel. Because nobody understood it. So it will be very interesting to see what they come up with.

At the end of the day, I can’t imagine anyone who enjoyed the GREMLINS would want a sequel or reboot; this is obviously going to be for a new audience. So just have it be a remake with THE SMURFS CGI/live-action twaddle for all I care.

What do you guys think? Sequel or reboot? Or nothing without Dante?