It seems that ever since Gremlins 2: The New Batch was released in 1990, there’s been regular chatter of a third movie in the franchise. With original screenwriter Chris Columbus now having put together a screenplay for Gremlins 3, he’s been discussing a huge possibility for the property: killing off Gizmo!

The logic here, of course, is that the loveable Mogwai is the source of the Gremlins terrorizing the landscape of Joe Dante’s 1984 Gremlins and its follow-up. So, it only stands to reason that killing Gizmo would help to neutralize the problem at its source point.

When asked about killing off Gizmo, Columbus told /Film, “Very good observation. That comes up in the movie, certainly. I think it probably is a good idea, to be honest with you. Too many people are dying.”

Moving on to discuss the tone of his script for the third film, Columbus went on to explain how the aim is to return to the darker tone of the first movie. “I’m really proud of the script,” he enthused, “It is as twisted and dark as anything, so we’ll see. It’s always a budgetary conversation when we’re going to shoot it. I wanted to go back to the really twisted sensibility of the first movie. I found that was a very easy place for me to fall back into and start writing again, so hopefully we’ll see that movie soon.”

For those fearing a glitzy CGI-fest if and when Gremlins 3 does get made, fear not. As Columbus put it, “Without a doubt, minimal CGI. CGI will enable us to remove wires and make the puppeteers lives a little easier. It was brutal. It was like a marathon every night for those guys. In the bar scene alone there were eighteen, twenty people behind the bar. No one had any space to move. It was just hellish for those guys, so CGI will simplify that a little bit but it’s all puppets”

It goes without saying, whether a third Gremlins picture ever sees the light of day, we’ll have to wait and see. After all, the notion has been talked about for several decades now. At this stage, though, at least there’s a screenplay finished and ready to go should Warner Brothers decide to push forward with the threequel.

As ever, expect more on this as it continues to develop.