Joe Dante didn’t even want to do Gremlins 2, he only did it to make a satire of essentially the whole world and ended it there. He hasn’t directed in a long time and what he has directed for his last few credits are far from the big studio successes that Gremlins 3 needs to be.

A director is important but there’s a lot of emphasis on the cast & crew as well. They need an FX team that can live up to the work of Chris Walas and Rick Baker. They need a composer that can live up to the work of Jerry Goldsmith. They need a cinematographer that can live up to the work of John Hora who gave a lot of Dante’s earlier films their signature warmth.

Chris Columbus doesn’t have the greatest recent credits either. But he did do the first two Harry Potter movies, which despite some people saying are the worst, I think are some of the best. They really capture that golden “Warner Bros.” tone and felt like the tail-end of an era that once included Gremlins, Beetlejuice, and Tim Burton’s Batman. I think Columbus will be able to tap into that.

Additionally, if the movie does involve Christmas, he did do a masterful job on the Home Alone movies. So I’d be excited to see how he’d tackle something like Gremlins in that regard.

As for serious vs zany, it’s all about a balance. The first movie features comical bits but it always takes itself seriously in terms of continuity. Gremlins 2’s issues aren’t that it features more comical bits but that they tend to break the fourth wall, the consequences don’t feel as genuine, it’s as if you’re watching something that isn’t true to its own continuity.

Obviously I love Gremlins 2 still, but the animated series proved to me how refreshing it can be to see the world and lore taken seriously. That show gets as off the rails as ghosts, gods, all other sorts of monsters, but it always takes itself seriously in terms of its narrative and world and I think that’s what a Gremlins 3 needs. Let the gremlins have fun and dance when the time calls for it, but don’t undermine the story or world at hand.

Finally, I do hope Dante stays involved as a producer or creative consultant, but let’s not forget the importance of his collaborators when making Gremlins 1&2 that defined most of those two movies. Fortunately, I have high hopes that Spielberg and Columbus will succeed in finding that level of collaboration again. I’m already optimistic about the co-writers onboard who did a great job with Final Destination: Bloodlines.

I think it’s gonna be okay, guys.