Disney announced plans for a Home Alone reboot in the summer, but new details suggest that it won’t be a reboot at all. Released in 1990, Chris Columbus’ Home Alone movie crushed the box office and made Macaulay Culkin a household name - and that one movie not only became a timeless classic but also the foundation for a long-running series of sequels.
For the 1992 sequel, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Culkin reprised his role and Columbus returned as director. Both films were written by the iconic filmmaker John Hughes, who later wrote an entirely different story for the 1997 franchise installment Home Alone 3. The fourth movie, Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House, features the original characters, while the 2012 update - Home Alone: The Holiday Heist - once again strays from the McCallister storyline. Now, it seems the latest Home Alone movie will go in a different direction as well.
According to reports, the Disney+ Home Alone movie will be titled differently but will ultimately have “similarities in concept." Jojo Rabbit star Archie Yates has been announced as Disney’s lead, with comic performers Ellie Kemper (The Office, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) and Rob Delaney (Catastrophe) rounding out the main cast. The new Disney+ movie will reportedly follow a married couple’s attempts to keep their home after a kid steals a valuable commodity. So while it’s still about a kid against two adults, it has nothing to do with the kid being “home alone”. Plus, the characters will be entirely different. Taking that into account, how is this a Home Alone movie?
Based on the logline alone, the Disney+ Home Alone reboot will be literally divisive, as a kid squares off against two adults. The original franchise film shows Kevin McCallister defending the family home (while squaring off against two adults), and the sequel brings the family closer after a vacation fail. Disney’s take on the premise will seemingly cater to various demographics via the kids vs. parents concept.
What’s interesting is that, in July 2018, it was reported that Ryan Reynolds would produce an R-rated Home Alone reboot called Stoned Alone, but Disney ultimately decided for a more family-friendly approach. On paper, the premise for the new Home Alone seems entirely safe, but we’ll have to see just how similar to the “reboot” is to the original version. After all, there are plenty of movies out there that are similar to one another, but they’re not reboots or remakes of a previous film. And with different characters and a different story, perhaps Home Alone fans will be fine with Disney’s upcoming film if they knew it wasn’t going to be a reboot.
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