‘Back To The Future’ Co-Creator Bob Gale Strenuously Says “No” To Fourth Film
by Erik Amaya
While the time travel hi-jinks of the Back to the Future trilogy could allow for a fourth entry, co-creator Bob Gale has pretty heated words for any executive who might suggest another movie. While speaking to The Hollywood Reporter at last Sunday’s Saturn Awards, the writer said, “People always say, well, ‘When are you guys going to do Back to the Future 4? And we say, ‘F*ck you,’ you quote me on that!”
The “we” in this case includes the series’ other creator, director Robert Zemeckis, who has also said on several occasional that he fields studio requests for a sequel or remake on the regular.
The original film, which starred Michael J. Fox as a rad teen from the 1980s who travels back to 1955 and meets his parents as high school students, is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. In fact, Gale and stars Christopher Lloyd and Lea Thompson were at the Saturn Awards to accept the George Pal Memorial Award in honor of the film’s four decade legacy.
In lieu of another film or remake, Gale instead suggests people go see Back to the Future: The Musical — an unlikely expansion that has the writer’s enthusiastic support. “We’re taking it around the world,” he said.
Back to the Future is one of the rare studio-owned IPs that hasn’t been exploited beyond the musical, Telltale’s Back to the Future: The Game, and the fondly remembered Back to the Future: The Ride at Universal theme parks. It is curious, though, as the basic premise of the first film lends itself to remake potential ever 30 years or so. Although, the stark differences between the ’80s and the ’50s could only be replicated with a pre-Internet time gap — like, say, a teen from 2015 going back to 1985. A similar adventure with 2025 and 1995 as its two time zones seems less appealing despite the mileage a filmmaker could get from a George McFly who wears too much flannel and listens to Pearl Jam.
But that sort of thing requires what Gale and Zemeckis gave the original trilogy: a true passion for the ideas.
Continuing the series at this point seems even more distant than, say, a Goonies sequel. Lloyd is basically retired except for the odd convention or award appearance. Thompson has moved to directing, and Fox retired in 2020 as the advancement of his Parkinson’s disease case made his ability to speak unreliable … although he also still makes the occasional appearance and continues to advocate for a cure to Parkinson’s. But without the original Marty McFly, do you even have Back to the Future?
What should be applauded here is the restraint of studio executives in not going forward with a remake or sequel without Gale and Zemeckis’s endorsement. So many other movies from the ’80s get the franchise treatment without the consideration of the original creative participants and it would be so easy for Universal to make a Back to the Future as forgettable as, say, that Poltergeist remake from a few years ago. Or maybe the gratitude should go to Zemeckis and Gale, who continue to hold the line against any more films. All things considered, we were lucky to get the three as a high quality series. It is best to leave it in the past despite the abilities of of Doc Brown’s (Lloyd) DeLorean.