Everyone that knows me, even in passing, knows how passionate I am about Gremlins. It has been an obsession of mine since I first saw the VHS on the shelf at the store as a kid. It terrified me for many years and is still the perfect comfort franchise for me, with Muppets being a close runner-up. I guess I got a thing for darkly humorous puppets.
Where was I? Oh yeah, Gremlins: Secrets Of The Mogwai is an animated series coming soon to HBOMax by showrunner Tze Chun. This animated series will follow young Sam Wing – the “old Chinese man” from the Gremlins films – and Gizmo rather than a continuation of the films. They will have adventures in 1920s China facing mythical beasts and confront an evil developer and his army of Gremlins.
The series, which was announced in 2019, was originally going to premiere in 2020 but COVID complications slowed production to a crawl. We now are finally getting some solid casting news, as reported by Screenrant.
Unfortunately, it looks like Howie Mandel, the original voice of Gizmo the Mogwai, who returned to voice Gizmo in the recent Mountain Dew Zero commercial, will not be part of this project. Instead, A.J. LoCascio, who has taken over the Marty McFly character in recent video games and pinball machines, will be voicing our heroic minority Mogwai. He also has done work on Critters – A New Binge, which I really enjoyed so he clearly has a talent for voicing furry little monsters.
The role of young Sam Wing will be played by Izaac Wang who was recently seen in the comedy Good Boys. Originally the role of Mr. Wing was performed by the late, great Keye Luke who is best known as the original Number One Son in the early Charlie Chan films.
The rest of the cast are all new characters, with Sam’s mother Fong Wing being played by Ming Na-Wen, known best for voicing the titular character in 1998s animated Mulan and, of course, she stole her scenes as Chun-Li in the campy but always enjoyable Street Fighter: The Movie (1994). Any excuse to talk about the Street Fighter movie is a win for me.
Sam’s father is voiced by BD Wong, known for his roles in Law & Order: SVU, OZ, Mulan, and several of the Jurassic Park movies. He is said to be “characterized as a “calm rock” that has “never believed his father-in-law’s tales of magic and adventure.” (per Variety)
Who is this father-in-law? Sam’s Grandfather/Fong’s Father Hon Wing is voiced by the legendary James Hong. James Hong has an unbelievable career spanning nearly 70 years and has been in everything from 1986’s Big Trouble In Little China to Operation Dumbo Drop and Kung Fu Panda. He even popped up in the “Gangnam Style”/Big Trouble In Little China parody video “Lo Pan Style.” Now, that is some serious dedication.
The English industrialist villain Riley Green will be played by Matthew Rhys, who apparently people know best from The Americans, however, I enjoyed his one-off performance as “freedom fighter” Lloyd Llewellyn in Archer.
Finally, we have Gabrielle Neveah Green voicing Elle, Sam’s 12-year-old friend. I am not familiar with her work at all, so I looked up some clips of her work in the new version of Nickelodeon’s All That and she has a very strong and magnetic presence that I hope she brings to the Elle character.
It is really exciting to see a story told by people that really love the franchise as well as Chinese mythology. Showrunner Tze Chun is a massive fan of the Gremlins films and is dedicated to making a show that can open new doors of positive representation. There aren’t many shows in the States that have a predominantly Asian cast telling a story of Chinese Mythology so this will certainly be a unique take on Gremlins.
I am looking forward to this series, and it is one of the few reasons I keep my HBO Max subscription active, aside from binging China, IL over and over again.
