Gremlins 3 Is Finally Happening — and Chris Columbus Is Bringing Gizmo Back
It's official. After 37 years, Warner Bros. is finally making Gremlins 3, and the studio isn't messing around — the original franchise's screenwriter is stepping behind the camera, Steven Spielberg is executive producing, and a November 2027 release date is locked in. The mogwai are coming back.
The Announcement That Changed Everything
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav confirmed the project on November 6, 2025, during the company's Q3 investor earnings call — and if you want to know how serious a studio is about a franchise, watch where they announce it. This wasn't a leaked trade rumor or a casual social media tease. Zaslav told shareholders directly that Gremlins 3 is in active development with a confirmed theatrical release: November 19, 2027.
The last live-action Gremlins film — Gremlins 2: The New Batch — hit theaters in 1990. That's a 37-year gap between sequels. Fans have been waiting through countless false starts, rumors, and near-misses. The wait is finally over.
Chris Columbus at the Helm
The most exciting element of this announcement isn't just that Gremlins 3 is happening — it's who is making it.
Chris Columbus wrote the original 1984 Gremlins screenplay, the one that launched Gizmo, the Mogwai rules, and one of the most chaotic, inventive creature features in horror-comedy history. Now he's returning to the franchise as both director and producer, co-writing the script alongside Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein — the filmmaking duo behind Final Destination: Bloodlines who have serious genre credentials.
Columbus knows this world better than anyone. He built it. Having the original architect come back to direct the third chapter rather than hand the keys to a franchise newcomer is exactly what Gremlins fans have been hoping for.
Steven Spielberg is returning as executive producer through his Amblin Entertainment banner, alongside producers Michael Barnathan and Mark Radcliffe (26th Street Pictures) and Amblin's Kristie Macosko Krieger and Holly Bario. The original creative DNA is very much intact.
What We Know (and What We Don't)
Plot details remain tightly guarded. The rough synopsis describes the film as a continuation of the original story — cute creatures transforming into uncontrollable monsters — but specific story beats haven't been revealed. Legacy cast involvement, including Zach Galligan and Phoebe Cates, has not been confirmed.
One notable absence: Joe Dante, who directed both Gremlins and Gremlins 2: The New Batch, is not attached to the project. Dante recently served as a consulting producer on the HBO Max animated series Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai, so his history with the franchise remains ongoing — but his name isn't on the director's chair this time. That absence has drawn attention from genre fans, though Columbus's deep roots in the original screenplay go a long way toward preserving the film's spirit.
Why This Is a Big Deal for Horror-Comedy
The original Gremlins was a landmark: a film that walked the razor's edge between family-friendly adventure and genuine horror, delivering chaos, creature carnage, and dark comedy in equal measure. The infamous department-store rampage, the microwave scene, Kate's Christmas monologue — Gremlins didn't play it safe, and that's exactly why it's been beloved for four decades.
Gremlins 2: The New Batch leaned into absurdist meta-comedy so hard it practically winked at the audience the entire runtime, and it found its own cult following as a result. Where Gremlins 3 lands on that spectrum — whether it returns to the darker, more menacing tone of the first film or continues the wild experimentation of the second — is one of the most interesting creative questions in horror-comedy right now.
With Columbus, Spielberg, and a November 2027 window (a prime holiday horror slot), Gremlins 3 has all the ingredients for something special. The only rule: don't feed them after midnight.
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