Gizmo Is Back — But Not Until October 2028
The new release date places Gremlins firmly in the Halloween season.
Warner Bros. has not publicly given a reason for moving the film from November 2027 to October 2028, so anything beyond the confirmed schedule change is speculation.
What we do know is that this is no longer one of those Gremlins 3 rumours that have circulated online periodically for years.
The project was officially announced in 2025, when Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav revealed that a new Gremlins film was heading to cinemas.
Now Warner Bros. has reinforced those plans with the new October 2028 date and Gizmo teaser.
That means the next live-action Gremlins movie will arrive approximately 38 years after Gremlins 2: The New Batch was released in 1990.
Chris Columbus Is Returning — This Time as Director
One of the most interesting parts of the revival is Chris Columbus’s involvement.
Columbus wrote the screenplay for the original 1984 Gremlins, which was directed by Joe Dante and produced by Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment.
More than four decades later, Columbus is returning to the creatures he helped create — but this time he will also be sitting in the director’s chair.
He is set to direct and produce the new movie.
Hannah Marks is writing the current draft based on an earlier screenplay by Columbus, Zach Lipovsky, and Adam Stein.
Lipovsky and Stein are also known for Final Destination Bloodlines, giving the new Gremlins film's writing history another interesting connection to modern horror.
Kristie Macosko Krieger and Holly Bario are producing for Amblin Entertainment, with Columbus, Michael Barnathan and Mark Radcliffe producing through 26th Street Pictures.
And another enormously important name is returning.
Steven Spielberg Is Back as Executive Producer
Steven Spielberg will executive produce the new Gremlins movie alongside Eleanor Columbus.
Spielberg’s involvement ties the new film directly to the franchise's beginnings.
The original Gremlins arrived in cinemas in 1984 and became one of the decade's defining genre movies, blending creature horror, black comedy, Christmas imagery, and family adventure in a way that proved hard to categorise.
Gizmo was at the centre of everything.
The adorable Mogwai came with a famously dangerous set of rules, and breaking those rules ultimately unleashed a collection of destructive Gremlins across the fictional town of Kingston Falls.
The film became a major box-office success and eventually received a much stranger sequel.
Gremlins 2: The New Batch arrived in 1990, moving the chaos into a high-tech New York skyscraper and pushing the comedy and satire considerably further.
Despite the franchise remaining culturally recognisable, no other live-action theatrical movie followed.
Until now.
What Is Gremlins 3 Actually About?
That’s the big question—and Warner Bros. still hasn’t answered it.
No official plot synopsis has been revealed, and the studio has not announced the film’s human cast.
That means questions surrounding returning characters, new characters and exactly where Gizmo has been all these years remain unanswered.
It is also worth being careful about reports concerning potential returning cast members. Until Warner Bros. or the filmmakers announce casting, treat those claims separately from what has been confirmed.
The tiny teaser doesn’t reveal the story either.
It simply gives audiences something arguably more effective at this stage: Gizmo.
Seeing the Mogwai emerge from a backpack before the October 2028 date appears is enough to establish that Warner Bros. knows exactly which character audiences have been waiting to see again.
The New Date Puts Gremlins in Horror Season
There’s also something interesting about that October 6 release date.
Gremlins has always occupied an unusual place in genre cinema.
The original is unmistakably associated with Christmas, yet it is also a creature feature filled with death, violence, monsters and wonderfully dark humour.
Moving the new movie into early October places the franchise directly in the run-up to Halloween.
Whether that timing tells us anything about the movie's tone remains unknown, but from a theatrical perspective, Gizmo and the Gremlins suddenly have a prime piece of horror-season real estate.
For All Horror Movies readers, that feels particularly appropriate.
Gremlins has always existed on the border between family entertainment and horror — cute enough to sell toys, nasty enough to traumatise younger viewers unprepared for what happened when those Mogwai rules were broken.
This Time, Gremlins 3 Really Is Happening
Perhaps the biggest story here isn’t even the delay.
It’s that we can finally talk about another Gremlins movie without putting “rumoured” in front of it.
Gremlins 3 has been discussed in one form or another for years. Columbus himself previously spoke publicly about having written a screenplay and wanting to return to the franchise.
For fans, however, there has always been a considerable difference between someone wanting to make Gremlins 3 and Warner Bros. actually putting the movie on its theatrical calendar.
We’ve crossed that line.
There is a director. There are producers. Spielberg is involved. A screenplay is being developed. Warner Bros. has announced a theatrical release date, changed it, and now used Gizmo himself to promote it.
October 2028 might feel painfully distant right now.
But after waiting since 1990 for another live-action Gremlins movie, what’s another year?
Just remember the rules.
Keep him away from bright light.
Don’t get him wet.
And whatever you do, never feed him after midnight.