Last year a prequel animated series to the classic ’80s film Gremlins debuted not only revealing the origin of the Mogwai creatures but introducing new friends and family for Gizmo, the face of the franchise. The second season, dubbed Gremlins: The Wild Batch, arrives on Thursday, October 3rd, and promises even more mayhem as Gizmo and friends find themselves headed to San Francisco and the American West to combat new and old foes.
Ahead of the release of the new season, we had a chance to chat with the cast and crew including voice actors Ming-Na Wen, James Hong, Izaac Wang, AJ LoCascio, and Gabrielle Nevaeh as well as showrunner and executive producer Tze Chun, exececutive producer Brendan Hay, and Joe Dante, director of the original films and consulting producer on this animated series.
Taimur Dar: With this being the second season of the Gremlins animated series, I gotta bring up the Gremlins 2: The New Batch movie. I remember renting it in the ‘90s as a kid on VHS and taking it completely seriously. Then as I got older, I realized how completely bonkers of a movie it really is. I assume at this point you’ve all seen both Gremlins movies. So I’d love to know what you thought of Gremlins 2 when you first saw it.
Izaac Wang: I have not watched it.
AJ LoCascio: I loved it as a kid because it was the more accessible I think of the two Gremlins. I liked how much more zany and strange it was. I loved New Batch because it’s the more absurd of them. That’s more accessible for a kid and more fun. There are different versions of gremlins which I found more appealing. It’s my favorite of them. And it’s more Joe Dante like Eerie, Indiana where it’s all these jokes and weird things happening all throughout in the way the first one had but not to that degree. And fourth wall breaking with Hulk Hogan.
Gabrielle Nevaeh Green: I haven’t’ seen it but I have seen the first one. That scared me as a kid in middle school. I ended up watching it simultaneously during the time of the audition process by chance. That was very serendipitous. I haven’t seen the second one yet. It’s on my bucket list.
Dar: On the subject of Gremlins 2: The New Batch, looking back at it as an adult, it reminds me of what Tobe Hooper did with Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. Even though you don’t go as bonkers with this animated series, I feel like elements of Gremlins 2 influenced the series. Would love to hear from the producers on this.
Joe Dante: There are actually characters from Gremlins 2 in our new show. I think the guys may have picked up on the freewheeling aspects of the sequel while trying to be true to the original because nothing exists without the original. The whole idea of doing a prequel to the original Gremlins I thought was a brilliant idea. When I heard about it, I called them up and asked if I could be involved because it sounded like such a cool idea. To my amazement they said, “Sure come on in. Talk to the guys.” Before I knew it, I was working on the show along these guys.”
Brendan Hay: Like Joe said, freewheeling is the perfect word. For the TV side, season one helped establish a world. Now everybody is on the same page that this is the show’s cast and the time period. This our season where we get to have even more fun. We don’t have to worry about reestablishing the lore or tone of the films. Instead, what’s the weirder areas we’ve yet to explore?
Tze Chun: I was talking to Brendan about this earlier. Season one of a TV show, especially an animated show, you’re trying to figure out things like the mechanics of how do they walk or how do their faces move. On season two, you get to use everything you learned in season one. I know between Gremlins 1 and Gremlins 2, the technology really progressed and Joe was able to do more things with Gizmo. In season two of the animated series, we were really able to do more not just with the characters in terms of how they moved [but also] set pieces and the way we moved the camera. We really wanted to push the envelope in every aspect of the new season.
Dar: I completely forgot that Ming-Na Wen and James Hong played father and daughter in an episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. over a decade ago. Before that, in animation you were both in Mulan. I’d love to know how long you’ve known each other.
Ming-Na Wen: A long time.
James Hong: I don’t remember the first meeting, do you?
Wen: I think the first meeting was when I worked with you on Law & Order. You went to the Mulan premiere at the Hollywood Bowl?
Hong: Of course.
Wen: So 25 years now. But we didn’t work on-one-on with each other until Law & Order SVU.
Dar: Voice recordings are done solo so you often don’t know who else is in the cast. Were you aware the other was involved and did that help you in your performance?
James Hong: I am a great-grandfather and have great-grandchildren, so the role fits me very well. It’s very easy for me to step into these new episodes of Gremlins and trying to tell Sam that life is tough. It’s always tough to talk to children and teach or tell them something because they have their own imaginations and desires. Sam just wants to go elsewhere because he’s sick of Shanghai. All of a sudden we’re in San Francisco and the United States. For them it’s the first time. For me [as Grandpa Wing] it’s a little different because I’ve been here before. I won’t tell you why because you have to watch the series to find out why Grandpa doesn’t want to go to the U.S.A. and confront certain things in his past that haunt him.
It’s a thrill to be in a great series like this and see the producers and directors use the Asian-American talents in these roles. In my life I’ve always advocated for more roles for Asian-Americans. I formed the East West Players hoping to develop the talent and tell the industry. We used to write letters to producers and directors when we began and say, “Use us more in your projects.” Finally, it’s come to fore but [it’s] still not enough. I think there’s a lot of room for all the talented people in the various areas to be hired in the industry to further the idea of equal opportunity.
Wen: To answer the question whether I knew James was playing Grandpa, yes. That was very helpful for me because I’ve known James for so many years and know his cadence and could hear how he would say certain lines. I didn’t meet the other actors until San Diego Comic-Con. It’s always an interesting solo process until it’s all brought together when it comes to animation.
Dar: Earlier this year, had the chance to host a panel on WonderCon about voice directing. Kristi Reed, the voice director for this Gremlins animated series, was incredibly kind enough to be on it and discuss the craft. I know some of you have worked with Kristi on previous projects. I’d love to hear experience working with Kristi.
LoCascio: She’s the worst, next question. [Laughs]. It’s hard to when you’re working with someone to realize how talented they are. It’s when you go and watch some of their other work when you realize they’re brilliant. The performances she pulls out of us and young kids on stuff like Summer Camp Island blows my mind. She would do her own version of Gizmo back and forth with me when we would do the recordings. She’s very rough and tumble in a way that I really love in a voice director where they’re willing to get their hands dirty and joke around and play which not all voice directors are willing to do. She’s fantastic.
Green: Kristi is wonderful. I’ve had the opportunity to work with her on a couple of different projects. As an actor I feel like my job is to be the vessel for the director or whoever is giving me the note. I definitely see a difference in the episodes that Kristi works on and the episodes that she doesn’t work on as far as my performance is concerned. I always appreciate a director who makes the actor feel comfortable and also tries to get down and dirty with the actor and understand what is needed for that performance to come through. She has a really great communication style that I resonate with. I’m grateful to have worked with her.
Wang: I love following directions.
LoCascio: You love IKEA.
[Laughter]Wang: I can’t cook without directions unless it’s fried rice. The way that she gave directions is so different than what I’ve had from other voice directors. She’s telling you how the scene moves and how she wants this but at the same time she’s leaving it up to your own idea and how you want to interpret it. She gives you little hints and tips how we can perfect and refine it. It really feels like a master blacksmith making a sword and slowly refining it
LoCascio: You really have been playing a lot of Elden Ring haven’t you?
Wang: I love my Elden Ring!
Wen: Fantastic. She allows you to play and she’s quick because she has a really good ear. If she hears it, she’s ready to move on. There’s this amazing confidence in her ability to decipher exactly what she needs for a particular line and I love that. Otherwise you could spend so much time doing voiceover work where you’re saying the line fifty different ways. I always wonder how the heck do they edit and figure out the one they want. I love Kristi for that.
Dar: There’s a temptation in children’s media to play it safe, but I love it when children’s programing that aren’t afraid to go for the crazy and weird. This Gremlins animated series has a bit of an edge. Was there any pushback or things you had to tone down?
Dante: They’ve been pretty good with us actually. It’s not like we’re adding gobs of nudity and gore. [Laughs]. This program I think has gone far field from what people would ordinarily expect from a cuddly cartoon show. It wasn’t a cuddly movie. It was a cuddly move for twenty minutes and then it wasn’t. That’s one of the reasons it’s still popular. They’ve maintained a tone that’s unusual and not namby-pamby. Gremlins was horror comedy.
Chun: I think we’ve been very lucky in that Amblin and Warner Bros. have given us a lot of free reign in terms of mixing humor with scares and gore. I think part of that is Joe did a lot of heavy lifting for that. Like Joe is saying, you start out watching the movie because there’s a cuddly adorable creature and then by the end you’ve got mass murder in a small town.
[Laughter]Hay: I think it’s also that kids want that. I was about six or seven when the first Gremlins movie came out, seeing it in a theater with my older cousins probably before I should have. Just as Billy has to survive all the events of that, a kid gets to survive the experience of seeing something that does scare them at times. But by the end you make it out and it’s thrilling and awesome. I have twins who are eight and them watching season one of our show was a bit of the same. I think kids like getting pushed up to the edge and it’s good for them to develop mentally to see they’re fine on the other side.
Dante: It’s the roller coaster ride syndrome. That’s what popular about horror films. They go in to get scared and they’re okay.
Dar: The characters are incredibly endearing especially the new ones introduced in this series. In this new season, Elle has a character arc where she tries to find her mother which really strikes a chord. How are the characters different this season compared to the previous one?
Green: Elle is definitely more vulnerable. She is letting people see her squishy side whether she likes it or not. I think that’s really admirable that we get to explore this emotional journey with Elle and find out where she came from and her origin story. I thik the moral of Elle’s journey is that it’s okay not to be okay. We don’t have to stuff down the things that hurt because they hurt for a reason. Oftentimes when we go through things and we have a rough past we have to put that over there and move the train forward. But it’s nice to take pitstop and look for answer and search for clarity and closure. That’s the most thrilling part of season two for me with Elle.
LoCascio: With Gizmo he’s dealing with a lot. He’s fighting his nature when you’re a Gremlin who stays on the straight and narrow path and doesn’t break rules. Eventually your nature is going to come back around to haunt you or have emotional outbursts because he’s repressing a lot of what a Gremlin is intended to do. He’s now dealing with this Bruce Banner/Hulk emotional dichotomy where he’s having issues and that causes issues for everyone around him.
Dar: Izaac, how does Sam’s relationship with Gizmo compare and contrast with that of Billy’s relationship in the original?
LoCascio: That is a good question. I think Sam and Gizmo make a stronger connection than Billy did in the movie. I can’t recall certain things from the movie because it’s been so long since I’ve watched it. From Sam’s perspective, Sam and Gizmo really do love each other. They become brothers. I can’t recall anything specific from the original franchise. Maybe Sam and Gizmo like each other more than Billy and Gizmo did in the original franchise.
Dar: On the subject of relationships, Sam and Elle remind me a bit of Carl and Ellie from Pixar’s Up. For that reason, I like to imagine Sam and Elle moving to New York and starting a family in New York. I’m curious to know in your minds do Sam and Elle have a romantic future or do they have a strictly platonic sibling relationship?
Chun: For us one of the things we wanted to do was tell an origin story not only Sam and Gizmo’s relationship but also the origin story of this makeshift extended family. Sam, Elle, Gizmo, Sam’s parents, Sam’s grandfather and all the friends they pick up along the way. In terms of where Sam and Elle’s relationship will develop, we really don’t know yet. We’ve got sixty years between the end of season two and the beginning of Gremlins 1. We always talked about building in time lapses between seasons. So season two takes place a year after season one. If we’re so lucky to get subsequent seasons, we’d really love for Sam and Elle to grow up together. One of the fun things in the writers’ room is as you write the characters, you really think about where they are in the near future and how that influences whether they come together or break apart. It’s something that’s ongoing and constantly evolving in terms of how we’re thinking about it.
Dar: Last season you had Gremlins acting alumni Zach Galligan and Haviland Morris lend their voices. Now this season is John Glover who played Daniel Clamp in Gremlins 2. I don’t know how much you can say but is it related to Clamp in some way or a completely new character?
Dante: There are echoes of Clamp in his character because there are echoes of Clamp in John Glover who is an interesting and off-beat actor. I was pleased that he was happy to come back because I think he did enjoy playing that part. He’s one of the best things about that movie. He was supposed to be the villain. Originally he was written to be this glowering bad guy just as Mrs. Deagle in the first movie. Yet there’s touches of humanity and humor in what John did.
Chun: It was really fun to expand the Mogwai mythology. In season two there are some Easter Eggs. The Clamp corporation is a big part of the GCU, the Gremlins Cinematic Universe. Being able to delve into the mythology of that is really fun in season two.
Gremlins: The Wild Batch premieres on Thursday, October 3rd on Max.
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