Trivia / Gremlins 2: The New Batch

• Actor-Inspired Heroism: Daniel Clamp was originally scripted to be just as mean-spirited and greedy as his obvious inspiration, but John Glover was so utterly charming that pretty much the entire production team was won over by his drastically different interpretation of the character.
• Approval of God: Joe Dante is aware of the Institute of Gremlins 2 Studies and thinks it's quite funny.
• Awesome, Dear Boy: Legendary Oscar-winning special effects artist Rick Baker was convinced to work on the sequel by letting him completely redesign the mogwai/gremlins, including making the new hybrids.
• Box Office Bomb: Unlike how the first Gremlins movie only cost $11 million and made over $150 million worldwide at the box office back in 1984, this 1990 sequel cost $50 million (production alone, not counting marketing and advertising) and only grossed back $41.5 million at the box office worldwide. Due to the disastrous financial returns, Gremlins 3 couldn't be made (and it would ultimately take over 30 years before WB would return to the franchise with Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai).
• B-Team Sequel:
  • Chris Columbus was unavailable to write the script due to him directing Home Alone.
  • Chris Walas was unable to return to do the effects, as he was working on The Fly II.
• Deleted Scene:
  • The Gremlins release all of the animals in the "Splice o' Life" lab. During the filming of this scene, the monkeys in the lab set were genuinely so terrified of the Gremlin puppets, that they refused to leave their cages when their trainers called for them.
  • George, Lenny, and Daffy sneak into Grandpa Fred's studio and "help" him host, which worked because Grandpa Fred's show was supposed to be scary. A still from this scene was used on the video cover. These scenes, among others, were cut as Steven Spielberg felt that there were too many Gremlins.
  • A voice says "You know, I've been thinking, Mr. Clamp would make a great President."
• Dueling Dubs: Just like its prequel, the film had two Japanese dubs, one for home video and another one for TV Asahi, and just like Gremlins' dub, some voice actors work in both dubs, mainly Toshihiko Seki (Billy), Sakiko Tamagawa (Kate), Tamio Ohki (Dr. Catheter), Ikuo Nishikawa (Murray Futterman), Hideyuki Umezu (Mr. Katsuji), Toshiro Ishii (Mr. Wing), Hōchū Ōtsuka (Wally), Miki Narahashi (Peggy), Kenichi Ogata (Brain Gremlin), Tesshō Genda (Rambo) and Shōzō Iizuka (Hulk Hogan)
• Making Use of the Twin: Identical twins Don and Dan Stanton (you may also recognize them from Terminator 2: Judgment Day as a security guard and the T-1000 copying him) play the clone lab assistants.
• Missing Trailer Scene: A very short one found in the home video trailer. The part in which Marla asks Billy whether he keeps a pet in his drawer has a different take in the film. Marla’s line can be heard, but the close-up of her doing a sassy gesture can only be seen in the trailer.
• The Other Darrin: An odd case for the French dub: Michel Vigné voiced John Rambo in the footage from Rambo: First Blood Part II instead of Sylvester Stallone's usual French dub actor who did all the Rambo films, Alain Dorval.
• Playing Against Type: John Glover is best known for playing villains and changed Clamp to more friendly because he disliked being exclusively cast as bad guys.
• Production Posse: It's a Joe Dante film — Dick Miller, Robert Picardo and Kevin McCarthy can't be far behind.
• Sequel Gap: It came 6 years after the first movie.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Warner Bros. was interested in a sequel immediately after the first film's massive success, but Joe Dante declined (partly because making the first was so taxing for him, and because he felt a sequel would be made only for the money). WB tried to get it made without him— with ideas including sending the Gremlins to Las Vegas and even Mars— but ultimately brought Dante back, who in exchange got complete creative control.
  • Daniel Clamp was originally intended to be just as greedy and ruthless as his reputation made him out to be, but after Dante discovered that John Glover was so nice on set, the part was specially re-written to show it. There are still a few lines hinting at the original idea.
  • The original script featured Randall Peltzer making a Continuity Cameo at the end of the movie with his latest invention — a wetsuit-type device to prevent Gizmo from ever getting wet again.
  • There were going to be more Mogwai, one of them a female that could have served as a possible Love Interest for Gizmo, but they were ultimately deleted. However, NECA released figures of the scrapped Mogwai recently. Also, there were going to be more mutant gremlins as well, including an elephant-gremlin hybrid, but were left out in the end.
  • A deleted script sequence shows that Lenny (the stupid brown Gremlin) was to perform a Heel–Face Turn during the climax, switching sides and standing up for himself by throwing George and Spider!Mohawk into a burning microwave oven. He would then become Gizmo's protector, making him the first gremlin to turn away from evil. The scene was ultimately cut because of its rather gruesome, violent nature, in stark contrast with the Lighter and Softer mood of the sequel.
  • The scene where Gizmo dances to "I'm Ready" by Fats Domino was originally supposed to feature "Dancing With Myself" by Billy Idol. The filmmakers were unable to get permission to use the Idol song, so they found another song with the same beat.
  • Tim Curry was considered for the voice of the Brain Gremlin.
  • The Looney Tunes bit at the beginning was longer, but the test audiences were confused by all the animation (since it was a live-action film) and it was trimmed down; the original version can be found on the DVD/BD releases.
  • The original ending had the Clamp building encased in concrete, trapping all the gremlins inside. Even with everything else Dante could do, the studio balked at the idea due to its expense.
• Word of God: Mohawk is effectively a reincarnation of Stripe.
• Working Title: The film's working title was Monolith.

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