UPDATE: Jenna’s people are denying DanielRPK’s report.
EARLIER: Warner Bros. is ready to roll on “Gremlins 3.” The film, dated for November 19, 2027, will start production in late summer, and casting is well underway.
A female lead is being eyed, and according to DanielRPK, Jenna Ortega has been offered the role. She’s in talks. We’ll see if it pans out.
Ortega, star of Netflix’s “Wednesday,” was recently seen in “Death of a Unicorn,” “Hurry Up Tomorrow,” and the Sundance-premiered “The Gallerist.” She also has J.J. Abrams’ “The Great Beyond” hitting theaters this November, and possibly Taika Waititi’s much-delayed “Klara and the Sun.”
Too bad Joe Dante, 84, isn’t coming back to direct “Gremlins 3”—his imagination runs wild when it comes to this franchise. We’ll have to make do with Chris Columbus. Steven Spielberg, who produced the original through Amblin Entertainment, still holds major sway over the franchise and chose his good friend Columbus for the job.
With the massive box-office success of “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” another decades-later follow-up, which also starred Ortega, studios are now even more bullish on legacy sequels. Warner Bros., in particular, has been doubling down—their “Practical Magic” sequel is currently set for September release.
“Gremlins 3” has been in various stages of development for years. Columbus, who wrote the original 1984 film, has long been attached as writer and producer. He has gone on record stating that the gremlins will not be CGI but will instead return to the practical puppetry that defined the original films.
Columbus, was the director critics loved to hate in the ’90s and early aughts. He directed a slew of highly successful films—“Home Alone,” “Home Alone 2,” “Mrs. Doubtfire,” “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” and “Stepmom.” He last directed “The Thursday Murder Club” for Netflix, a somewhat well-received hit for the streamer. His output over the last 20 years hasn’t been much to write home about, with titles like “Pixels,” “Percy Jackson and the Olympians,” “I Love You, Beth Cooper,” and “Rent.”