'Gremlins' Gets A Commercial Sequel With Zach Galligan And Gizmo, Courtesy Of Mountain Dew

Fans have been wanting to see a new Gremlins sequel for a long time now. Though Gremlins 3 remains up in the air, they'll partially be getting their wish with an animated prequel series called Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai coming to HBO Max. But that wasn't good enough for Mountain Dew, who decided to make a sequel of their own in the form of a commercial which brings back the little Mogwai known as Gizmo and actor Zach Galligan as his human buddy Billy Peltzer.

Zach Galligan isn't just a young kid living at home anymore. He's got a place of his own, and Gizmo (voiced by Howie Mandel again) is still hanging around with him. And just like Billy has aged, it appears Gizmo has too, with some streaks of gray appearing on his furry face. Regular Mountain Dew probably has too much sugar for these two buddies, but that's where Mountain Dew Zero Sugar comes into play.

We all know that Gremlins aren't supposed to get wet, so when Gizmo spills Mountain Dew Zero Sugar all over himself, it's inevitable that more Mogwai pop out of his back. As the commercial shows, this kind of mistake appears to be a regular occurrence, though it doesn't seem to make a unique Mountain Dew-infused Mogwai, which would have been fun.

The Gremlins universe expands a little when Billy's teen daughter makes an appearance, looking like a modern Wednesday Addams. She has her own Mogwai doppelganger sitting on her shoulder. Maybe the Peltzer pet ended up accidentally becoming a reality?

We're not sure why Gremlins ended up being at the center of the latest advertising campaign for Mountain Dew Zero Sugar. The tagline says, "As good as the original, maybe even better?" If there was a new movie coming out, that would be a great tie-in. Even though there's that animated prequel series coming down the line, this clearly isn't timed to land in conjunction with that series. Maybe this was a campaign planned a while back before production delays from the coronavirus pandemic messed with timetables. Honestly, we're not sure why Mountain Dew didn't use this as a Super Bowl commercial instead, but we're also wondering if this is just the beginning of a longer campaign that will expand the Gremlins and Mountain Dew partnership even more.

Meanwhile, we're still waiting to find out when Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai will arrive on HBO Max. The series is written by Tze Chun and executive produced by Darryl Frank, Justin Falvey, and Sam Register, with Chun and Brendan Hay serving as co-executive producers. Dan Krall will also serve as supervising producer. Here's the official synopsis for the upcoming 10-episode series:

In the animated television adaptation, we travel back to 1920s Shanghai to reveal the story of how 10-year-old Sam Wing (future shop owner Mr. Wing in the 1984 movie) 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.