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A ‘Gremlins’ prequel cartoon will come to Warner Bros.’ streaming service

Gremlins
WarnerMedia

Another day, another streaming service content announcement. This time, it’s WarnerMedia’s turn to bring back a beloved childhood property to attract your inner child’s attention, and the company’s announced that they’ve greenlit a Gremlins prequel series for their yet-to-be-announced streaming service later coming later this year. The company made the announcement via The Hollywood Reporter earlier on Monday, and it’s probably not what you were expecting: It’ll be an animated adult-oriented show.

Here’s a plot summary via the THR article:

“Titled ‘Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai,’the series is set in Shanghai in the 1920s and reveals the story of how 10-year-old Sam Wing (future shop owner Mr. Wing in the 1984 feature film) met the young Mogwai called Gizmo. Along with a teenage street thief named Elle, Sam and Gizmo take a perilous journey through the Chinese countryside, encountering, and sometimes battling, colorful monsters and spirits from Chinese folklore. On their quest to return Gizmo to his family and uncover a legendary treasure, they are pursued by a power-hungry industrialist and his growing army of evil Gremlins.”

Well, you know what? We’re kind of interested in this, though there’s plenty of potential for things to go wrong. It all really depends on how the first footage looks, because Warners Animation is either incredible (Batman: The Animated Series, Animaniacs) or terrible (basically every DC cartoon in the last five years).

Still, we’re not excited about paying for yet another streaming service — this will be Warners’ third foray into this space, with the failed Filmstruck and fledgling DC Universe coming before — and we doubt that this is the kind of announcement that will sell more subscriptions to this nascent media venture. That said, it’s the best possible time to be pitching whatever dumb bullshit you’ve got lying around in your junk drawer, because a VC-funded television producer might just throw cash at you!

Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai will hit sometime later this year.