The Animated Gremlins Prequel Series Is Happening

While you shouldn't necessarily feed them after midnight, you can certainly binge them after midnight. WarnerMedia has officially ordered a 10-episode, half-hour prequel to original 1984 Gremlins for its upcoming, still-unnamed streaming service.

The series -- which we first learned about earlier this year -- will be animated and, according to WarnerMedia, will take us "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."

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According to The Hollywood Reporter, the series will be "adult-focused," whatever that means for Gremlins (and it probably means that you're still a little wary/frightened of the creatures even as an adult, and also, you know, adult humor). No voice actors are attached to the series yet, but it will be written by Tze Chun, with Chun and Brendan Hay serving as executive producers.

There's no tentative release date for the series, but WarnerMedia's streaming service is set to debut later this year, with original content rolling out in 2020. While it is a little bit aggravating to suddenly spend money for another new subscription service, it's all but official that eventually Friends will leave Netflix and migrate over to WarnerMedia's platform.