It has recently been announced that the new sequel to the Gremlins films has been delayed to October 6, 2028. A third Gremlins movie has been talked about for a long time, and after the chaotic Gremlins 2: The New Batch destroyed the fourth wall with its meta humor, many fans wondered if it was even possible to follow up. Now that Warner Bros. has finally greenlit a third movie, the only filmmaker who seemed fit to helm the new entry was the director of the first two — Joe Dante. Dante, of course, has been there since the beginning and saw its evolution into complete absurdity with the second one, which could have easily been a mess. There are people out there who might argue that Gremlins 2 is a mess, but it is an intentional, orchestrated mess, played as a joke.
When Dante wasn’t announced as a director, it may have put some fans on edge. It was then announced that Chris Columbus would be stepping in. Perfect! Columbus wrote the first movie. It’s as much his baby as it is Dante’s, and Columbus has a great resume. If we couldn’t get Dante to return, Columbus is an inspired choice to take over. In the delay announcement, Columbus even emphasized that animatronic puppets will be used again, with a short tease of Gizmo in a backpack.
However, as much as I have faith in Columbus, it still feels like there’s no franchise without Dante, and if Gremlins 3 needs to succeed, his unhinged voice would be the best to continue the creature madness. This is no slight against Columbus. I love his movies. He’s a great director. I love how much he loves Christmas. And I loved his guest hosting of the Bruce Springsteen station on Sirius XM radio.
Chris Columbus has directed some of our most beloved movies of all time. To this day, every year, we still celebrate the Home Alone franchise on Christmas and the films still very much have relevance in pop culture. Columbus is a master of movies with incredible heart. Stepmom, Bicentennial Man, Nine Months — even if they aren’t as beloved as Home Alone or Adventures in Babysitting, they are good movies to watch about people and the human condition. Columbus is good at pulling on the heartstrings. The influence from his peer, John Hughes, is apparent.
It should be noted that Columbus did originally write Gremlins as a dark, hard R-rated movie. However, when it came time to execute that horror, then add comedy and family elements, which only Amblin in the ’80s could do, Dante achieved that impossible balance where you could both laugh with the movie, and it could creep the hell out of you. Dante had recently come off of the werewolf horror film The Howling when he worked on Gremlins. His horror experience would certainly shine through. Even in Gremlins 2, when all sense of the horror preface was absent, Dante could still weave in some pretty suspenseful moments, like when Clamp is investigating the disappearance of his secretary.
Chris Columbus is great at comedy. There is no disputing that. The Home Alone movies prove he can dial up absurdity, like when Marv turned into a literal skeleton when being electrocuted. But Joe Dante has shown time and again how much he loves the Looney Tunes. He used the chaotic nature of the gremlin creatures to bring his brand of Merrie Melodies-inspired insanity into live-action. Physics and logic would no longer work in the movies and scenes would have the comparable comedic randomness of a Zucker brothers comedy.
Gremlins 2 did this to the nth degree. The movie would even pause for a side-scene with gremlins in the projection booth and the movie only continued because Hulk Hogan, who happened to be in the audience, threatened to take down the creatures (However, I’ve always liked their chances. They have claws and sharp teeth!). It’s concepts like that and even simply something like movie critic Leonard Maltin reviewing the first Gremlins in Gremlins 2 shows that Dante isn’t afraid to go no-holds-barred. And the miracle is that he makes it all work. You realize you’re watching a Looney Tunes cartoon and since the movies are made by Warner Bros., Dante could actually have Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck make cameos.
I do not think Chris Columbus will steer us wrong. Dante will likely executive produce and he and Columbus may bounce some ideas off each other. But there is something about Joe Dante’s filmmaking that makes him seemingly the only one who can make a Gremlins movie. He comes from the Roger Corman school of filmmaking. He takes the horror seriously. But he also loves Looney Tunes and is a Spielberg peer/Amblin director. Dante may be older now, but (much like Tim Burton with Beetlejuice Beetlejuice) he can likely rediscover his plucky roots as an outside-the-box filmmaker.