Gremlins: Secrets Of The Mogwai Invades May 23

Boy, did this one take a while to get here. Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai was one of the first shows announced for HBO Max, pre-pandemic. Several years, one buyout, a second buyout, and one decimation of the entire service itself later, the Gremlins cartoon is finally set to debut on the day HBO Max rebrands itself as just “Max.” A lot has happened, Gizmo.

Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai is, as you might have guessed, based on the 1984 movie and its sequel, but takes place well before either. It now joins a crowd of nothing BUT prequels and spinoffs, but I swear, when this was first announced Max was promising a much more varied library than that. We should at least be grateful it somehow survived the Cartoon Purge of last year.

When we first met Gizmo back in ’84 he was under the care of the mysterious Mr. Wing. Secrets of the Mogwai will reveal just how Wing and Gizmo got together, sixty years prior, in early 20th Century Shanghai. Back then he just went by his first name, Sam, and there was no one to warn him about the Three Rules….so Gizmo got wet, Gremlins hatched, and chaos ensued. Sam figures the only way to stop it all is to return Gizmo back to where he came from. We know he’ll fail at that. But we’ll also find out HOW he failed at it.

Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai stars the voices of Ming-Na Wen, James Hong, BD Wong, Matthew Rhys, Izaac Wang, AJ LoCascio and Gabrielle Nevaeh Green. Guest roles include Sandra Oh, Randall Park, George Takei, Bowen Yang. and somehow Zach Galligan, though we doubt he’s playing Billy. The show arrives on Just Plain Max May 23.