Posted in: Movies, Warner Bros | Tagged: beetlejuice, Gremlins, the goonies, The Matrix

New Beetlejuice, Matrix, Gremlin, & Goonies Sequels Are In Development

A new interview with Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy confirms several sequels in varying levels of development, including Beetlejuice, The Matrix, The Goonies, Gremlins, and Minecraft (of course).

It feels like every other week, we hear about the new drama happening behind the scenes at Warner Bros., and half the time, it feels like said drama revolves around Warner Bros Pictures co-chairman/CEOs Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy. There were rumors the two were about to get fired, but following the runaway success of A Minecraft Movie (even if a bunch of you have apparently forgotten how to act like humans in movie theaters, knock that shit off), maybe they aren't out the door quite yet. While their presentation at CinemaCon wasn't one of the best, there are a lot of big projects happening at the studio, and they are greenlighting even more as we speak.

A few days ago, A Minecraft Movie director, Jared Hess, all but confirmed that a sequel was in development, but a new interview with De Luca and Abdy confirms that if the ink on that one isn't dry, it will be soon. However, they also revealed several more movies getting sequels, and while De Luca said, "The ink might not be dry on the deals yet, but imminently," for Minecraft and Beetlejuice, there is even more in the established IP tank for Warner Bros.

"Adding to things we're excited about, Andy Serkis doing the Gollum film, Drew Goddard writing a new Matrix," Abdy said. "We're super excited about Amblin developing with Chris Columbus, new entries in the Gremlins and Goonies franchises. We just had a dynamite check-in with Philippa Boyens on Gollum, and I think we're about to get that script in May. Cat in the Hat and the second Dr. Seuss adaptation Jon M. Chu is co-directing … there's really great stuff on the horizon."

Okay, there is a lot to unpack there. We already knew about the Gollum movies so we're just going to move on from that one, and we have previously just confirmed that Beetlejuice 3 is in some level of development. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice was the movie that pulled Warner Bros. out of a pretty rough summer, making just over $450 million on a $100 million budget. It also ended up being the last hit Warner Bros. had in 2024 because its next two films, Joker: Folie à Deux and The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, both failed to find audiences. So a sequel that makes complete sense. Another Gremlin and Goonies also makes sense in that people love nostalgia, and several of these "decades after the fact" sequels have done well. See: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, for example. It's nice to hear that Amblin is involved and Chris Columbus is all right; he's directed some things that have worked.

Earlier this month, we learned that another Matrix film was in development, and it still doesn't make a lot of sense. The Matrix Resurrections was released in December 2021, and things did not go well there. The movie was a pandemic victim, which didn't help, but the massive budget ($190M), the mediocre reviews, and several other movies competing for the few times people were willing to risk going out in public. The film was also the end of the experiment that Warner Bros. did with releasing films in both theaters and HBO Max. It worked for some films, but in this case, it seemed people were willing to stay home to watch the film and go to the theater for something else. Since it was the end of the hybrid release schedule, there was a very good chance that if someone was going to sign up for HBO Max to get that service, they would have done it months prior, so they likely didn't get many new subscribers either. People thought this franchise was dead in the water, but they have confirmed that another film is in the works and Drew Goddard is writing.

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