10 Reasons Not to Miss Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai

Like the films, the series hero is always safe with the power of the Mogwai. Galligan likens it to how he views the franchise—“I’m never going to argue against kids watching the movies. I think they hold up very well”—and compared them to the new show. “I think they sent me the first four or five complete scripts so I could look at a small supporting part, but also to get a feeling of the tone and what they were going for. You can do cartoons or animated series all sorts of different ways. You can do them either just for kids, or you can do them in a sophisticated way like Bugs Bunny cartoons, where they’re equally good for amusing adults. There are definitely some things that I think adults will enjoy that might go over the kids’ heads.”

Wang is now a teen, but he was actually a kid when he joined the Gremlins series. “At the time I was only 11 years old, and I wasn’t really educated on most of the old movies back then. I searched Gremlins and saw the massive fan base. So I was like, ‘Okay, well, I’m really going to try this one.’ When I did end up booking [the role of Sam], that was a pretty cool moment for me.” From the start, he was open to the mildly scary shenanigans. “Reading the script, I’m not going to lie—seeing that preproduction stuff, it wasn’t as scary. And then when I saw the actual scary stuff I was like, ‘Wow, that is not what I was expecting at all!’ It definitely spooked me a little bit. It’s funny to watch.”