WarnerMedia is currently developing the animated prequel series “Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai” for a likely premiere on HBO Max sometime in 2021, and it will mark the official return of the franchise for the first time since 1990’s Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Both original films were directed by Joe Dante, who reveals that he is involved with the HBO Max series!

Speaking with Daily Dead, Dante noted that he’s “consulting” on the project.

“It’s going to be good. I’m very pleased with the way it’s going,” Dante told the site. “It’s a prequel. It goes back to the character Mr. Wing when he was a boy, and when he first discovered the Mogwai. It’s set in China in the ’20s, and it’s animated and it’s very big in the sense that if you tried to shoot it as a theatrical film, it would be outrageously expensive. But in animation, you kind of get away with almost anything you can think of. And it’s probably not going to be done until 2021 or maybe the end of 2020. It’s for HBO Max, a new streaming variant of HBO.”

Dante continued, “I think this is a really clever way to get back into [the franchise]. I think that they found it pretty difficult to make a sequel to Gremlins 2, because of just the way I made it. And they just could never really quite figure out how to do it. So I think this is a great way to sort of get the franchise back on people’s minds.”

Head over to Daily Dead to read the site’s full interview with Joe Dante, which includes conversation about The Burbs, Small Soldiers, “Eerie, Indiana” and new film Camp Cold Brook.

The half-hour “Secrets of the Mogwai” has received a 10-episode order.

Set in 1920s Shanghai, the series will tell the story of how 10-year-old Sam Wing 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.”