Movies

A new Gremlins movie is greenlighted, with Chris Columbus and Steven Spielberg returning

Warner Bros. revives the iconic creature feature with its first live-action installment in nearly four decades.

Update: Nov 6th, 2025 18:03 CET

Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav officially confirmed the return of a beloved creature feature franchise, announcing the greenlight for a new Gremlins film during the company’s third-quarter earnings call on Thursday. This highly anticipated theatrical release, scheduled for November 19, 2027, marks the first live-action installment in the series since the divisive 1990 sequel, Gremlins 2: The New Batch.

The new film is set to bring back key creative forces from the original, setting an optimistic tone for fans. Steven Spielberg is returning as an executive producer through his production company, Amblin Entertainment. More significantly, Chris Columbus, who wrote the screenplay for the classic 1984 original, will both produce and direct the film. Plot details and casting weren’t announced.

A new team for modern mayhem

For the new feature, Columbus will be joined on the writing team by Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein, the directing duo who recently helmed the successful horror film Final Destination: Bloodlines. This collaboration suggests a blend of the franchise’s original dark horror-comedy roots with a fresh perspective from filmmakers experienced in modern genre cinema.

The original 1984 film, directed by Joe Dante and written by Columbus, introduced audiences to the adorable Mogwai, Gizmo, and the three famous rules of caretaking. When those rules are broken—no bright light, no water, and no feeding after midnight—the Mogwai multiply into destructive, reptilian killer monsters, which became a cultural phenomenon and a box office hit. The subsequent 1990 sequel, which Dante also directed but Columbus did not write, leaned heavily into broad satire, and underperformed at the box office, effectively halting the franchise’s momentum.