This is not a drill — Gremlins 3 is officially happening 43 years after the release of the original.
Warner Bros has confirmed the long awaited sequel will arrive in cinemas on November 19 2027, with Steven Spielberg returning as executive producer and Chris Columbus, who wrote the 1984 classic, set to direct and produce.
The announcement was made by Warner Bros Discovery chief executive David Zaslav during an investor call on Thursday, as part of a broader update on the studio’s upcoming release schedule, which he described as the “strongest in the industry”.
Zaslav revealed that Warner Bros is currently leading the global box office, having become the only studio to cross four billion dollars in ticket sales in 2025, thanks to blockbusters including Superman, Minecraft The Movie, Sinners, Weapons and The Conjuring Last Rites.
Now the studio is turning its attention to reviving one of its most beloved properties. The return of Gremlins brings Spielberg and Columbus back to the mischievous monsters that first united them in 1984, before they went on to collaborate again on The Goonies and other 1980s classics.
Columbus, whose directing credits include Home Alone, Mrs Doubtfire and the first two Harry Potter films, told The Standard in September he and Spielberg have been quietly developing the project for years but were determined not to bring it back until they could match or even surpass the magic of the original.
“Stephen and I just feel that we don’t want to release a sequel or reboot unless it’s as good as or better than the films that preceded them,” Columbus said. “We’re not in the business of making a film just because we know it’s going to do well at the box office.
“The problem is as years go by people’s memories become stronger so the nostalgic feeling grows. So 40 years later we have to be even better than if we’d made a sequel the following year. Hopefully I won’t be here in 10 years saying now we’ve been working on it for 50 years.”
Columbus, who confirmed he is writing the script himself, also reassured fans that the mischievous Mogwai will remain true to their original form with practical puppets rather than computer generated effects.
“No, we would do practical puppets, yeah,” he said.
The original Gremlins, directed by Joe Dante and written by Columbus, told the story of teenager Billy, played by Zach Galligan, who receives a mysterious furry creature called a Mogwai as a pet only for chaos to erupt when he breaks the three golden rules: do not expose it to bright light, do not get it wet and never feed it after midnight.
A blend of comedy, horror and Christmas chaos, the film was a runaway success, grossing more than 200 million dollars worldwide and even inspiring the creation of the PG 13 rating. Its 1990 sequel, Gremlins 2 The New Batch, was less successful at the box office but has since achieved cult status.
The Mogwai have never fully disappeared from popular culture. Gizmo and Stripe have appeared in adverts for Mountain Dew and BT, made cameos in The Lego Batman Movie in 2017, and starred in the animated prequel Gremlins Secrets of the Mogwai, which premiered on HBO Max in 2023. Its follow up series Gremlins The Wild Batch was released in two parts across late 2024 and spring 2025.
The announcement of Gremlins 3 adds to Hollywood’s growing wave of 1980s nostalgia following the success of Ghostbusters Frozen Empire and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
