Animated Gremlins Show Casts Ming-Na Wen, BD Wong, And Matthew Rhys

The upcoming animated HBO Max show Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai has cast three of its main voice actors. It's been reported by Variety that Ming-Na Wen, BD Wong, and Matthew Rhys have all joined the cast.

Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai is a spin-off from Joe Dante and Steven Spielberg's classic 1984 horror comedy Gremlins and its 1990 sequel. Wen (Agents of SHIELD) will play Fong Wing, the mom of the show's young main character Sam, while Wong (Jurassic World) plays his dad Hon. Rhys will voice the show's main villain Riley Green, a power-hungry English businessman.

The series is a prequel to the movies, and is set in 1920s Shanghai. It focuses on Sam, who grows up to be the elderly shopkeeper from the first movie, and his friendship with the mogwai Gizmo as they embark on a series of adventures. Green is attempting to capture Gizmo and harness the creature's powers.

The showrunner on Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai is Tze Chun, who previously worked on DC's Gotham and the ABC's fantasy series Once Upon a Time. It's produced by Spielberg’s Amblin Television. The series doesn't have a premiere date yet, but Variety states that it has been in production since 2019, so a 2021 release is possible.

In related news, Chris Columbus, who wrote the original movie, recently revealed that he had written a script for a third Gremlins movie. "I would love to do it," he sad. "I wrote a script, so there is an existing script. I would still do it the same way--I would do it as tangible puppets, not CGI."